My Story
by Shadoword
Summary: Her life was filled with memories of all kinds. But when they are stripped away from her, her friends and older brother are left with a girl who has to find the memories that made her who she was. Her name is Zara, and apparently, this is her story.
1. Who Are you?

_Hello people. I apologize since it has been a while that I've updated a story, so here is this, my next multi-chapter story. So this month I'm doing the NanoWrimo and at the same time a seperate story idea popped into my head at the same time. So I have the NanoWrimo and this one that you are about to check out. I'm going to try to keep the updates consistent, so wish me luck and I hope you guys enjoy.  
-Shadoword_

Her life was one filled with memories. Good, bad, enjoyable, regrettable, and those that left scars. But when an accident occurs Zara finds herself surrounded by people who claim to be friends and family, when all she sees are strangers. Now her friends are bent on making her remember, regaining the memories that made her into the Zara that they knew. But the journey won't be an easy one, and she isn't sure if she wants to remember the things of her past.

_**If I stay it won't be long  
**__**Till I'm burning on the inside  
**__**If I go I can only hope  
**__**That I make it to the other side  
**__**If you want to get out alive  
**__**Run for your life  
**__**If you want to get out alive  
**__**Run for your life.**_

Hasan was a wreck as he stood in the waiting room, finding himself unable to sit down as his sister was unconscious in the emergency room. They said she had a concussion after her car door caved in on her, and it was possible that there would be brain trauma. _What the hell does that mean? Is she going to be alright? Can they fix it?_ These type of questions were rushing through his head and he didn't know how to even take them on. It was bad enough his parents-

He paused mid step, his raven black hair falling in front of his eyes as he took a deep breath, hastily wiping at his eyes. He couldn't think about them now. That was the past, albeit a very recent past, but he needed to focus on Zara now, right now she was the one who needed him. His pacing resumed, before he heard his name being called in the distance. Spinning around he saw one of his close friends, Axel, run up to him with Zexion, both Zara's and his friend, in tow. "Hasan? What the hell happened?" Axel asked as the tall man came to a stop. Axel was twenty, Hasan's age and going to his same college, while Zexion was a year older than Zara and going to their school as well. "Dude, you look like shit." He said, noticing his friend's almost panicked look.

"Why are we at the hospital?" Zexion asked, much more calmer than the redhead as he stood with his arms crossed and slated blue hair falling in front of one of his eyes. All he had been told was to meet Hasan at the hospital immediately, no other explanation was given but knowing the duo, he had immediately complied.

"Guys- There was - Zara, she's-" Suddenly all the words that had been running through his mind disappeared, and he had absolutely no idea what to say.

"Dude! Is Z alright?" Axel asked hurriedly, using his nickname for his sister.

Finally he said the four words that explained the situation as a whole. "There's been an accident." For once in his life, Axel was speechless, but as soon as the doctor started for the trio Axel found his voice again, even though Hasan beat him to it. "How is she?" He asked hurriedly.

The doctor, an older man with a pair of spectacles in front of his eyes, glanced at the other two. "Are these two also family?"

"We're her brothers too, now what's wrong with Zara?" Axel demanded, causing the doctor to raise his eyebrows as he studied the absolutely no resemblance between the trio. "It's OK, they can know." Hasan said, wanted the man to just hurry up.

"Alright." He agreed, sighing as he studied the chart in his hand. "Mr. Alozza, physically, your sister is in a lot better shape than I would have expected. She's going to be sore for the next few weeks to come and maybe a few scars from the cuts, but other than that her body will be fine."

Zexion wasn't stupid. "You said physically, what is the problem?"

"We found immense brain trauma from the car door caving in on your sister, we were able to stop the bleeding but we can't find out any more details until she wakes up." Hasan felt like he had just been stabbed.

"B-brain trauma? What does that mean?" He asked uncertainly.

"Well, it could mean a variety of things, but most likely it would be," He cleared his throat. "Memory loss is the most popular injury to result from it." The way the redhead looked about ready to rip him to shreds didn't give him any comfort, and the cold glare from the blue haired boy wasn't helping either. The only one who looked normal was the girl's biological brother.

"How long?" He whispered.

"Mr. Alozza, we don't know for sure if she has the memory loss or not, there is still a chance-"

"_If_ she has _it. How long?"_ Axel growled.

"It could vary from a few hours to a few days, maybe weeks, she may never get her memory back, we can't really know." He answered truthfully.

His little sister, the one who he spent his entire life living with and could easily dub one of his closest friends, may not remember the memories they shared together, the jokes they shared, or all the days that she kept him from going insane.

"When can we see her?"

XXXXXX

It was dark, an eternal blackness that was devoid of any color, any emotion, any _life._ It would have been depressing to others, maddening to some, but to her, it was calming, serene, it made her feel relaxed. This feeling, the one of this calming state, it was nice, it felt different. She really couldn't remember when was the last time she felt that way, was that a bad thing? Maybe, she didn't know, and right now she probably could care less if it did mean anything. The fleeting feeling of happiness floated through her before the darkness took hold of it, and she was once again just floating throughout the endless void, seeing nothing and not minding it at all.

Suddenly that peaceful feeling was stripped away from her, and replaced by annoyance as an aching came from the void, and no matter how hard she tried to block it out, it wouldn't go away. She didn't want that feeling, she wanted the other one, but it wouldn't leave her alone.

The small aching feeling grew, and with it was accompanied by one of helplessness as it intensified and she found there being nothing more but the searing pain. She wanted to cry out, to lash out and attack it head on, to make it _go away._ But she couldn't, all she could do was float in the pain and despair and silently pray that it would stop.

XXXXXX

Hasan had been talking with Axel and Zexion, all three of them trying to figure out what plan of action they were going to take depending on Zara felt when she woke up. The entire time the older brother couldn't tear his eyes from the limp girl lying in the bed, the mantra of _Please don't forget._ running through his mind even as he spoke other words to his friends.

A small whimper came from the bed and his eyes snapped up to her face, his normally strong and sarcastic sister looking weak and vulnerable as the small sound escaped her lips. "Zara?" He whispered, putting one of his larger hands on hers smaller one. "Sis?"

Her breathing became slightly deeper and he watched with happiness as her blue eyes opened slowly, revealing the glassy orbs underneath and a small tear escaping the corner to run down the side of her face. Zara _never_ cried, why was she crying?

This small and personal fact made him worry and he let her eyes wonder some before they came to rest on him, also taking in the sight of Axel and Zexion behind him were were absolutely quiet. "Hey Zara, how are you feeling?"

She looked at him for a moment before his worst nightmare came to life as she brought her hand away from his. "Do I know you?"

XXXXXX

The girl stared at her reflection in the mirror, her face completely emotionless as she looked at the person she saw there. The midnight blue eyes dully studied the pure white hair that fell all the way down to her lower back. Her figure was on the thinner side, but she could see the defined muscles in her arms that was covered by a shirt a few sizes to big for her, carefully falling off of one shoulder to rest on her upper arm. Her features were only slightly narrow as her pale skin was reflected by the soft bathroom light.

But what she was really focusing on was the cuts and bruises that rested on her soft skin. Along her hairline she could see the few stitches that if she moved her hair would easily cover them. The bruises were already fading into the darker colors while the cuts weren't to deep but enough to be cautious with when stretching. Without looking she knew they covered her entire body, she could feel the soreness and slight stinging that came with having them.

The teenager tilted her head slightly, and her hair fell in front of her face to hide the stitches. The smallest of frowns came over her features and her voice was soft, almost fragile as she spoke, watching the stranger in the mirror mimic her actions. "Who are you?"

XXXXXX

My favorite food is enchilada's, favorite music is just about everything except country. My favorite color is smoky gray and I enjoy being surrounded by nature, which would explain why I love my bedroom patio that rests just above the garden. I stay up late at night because I'm more comfortable in the darkness, and I have a fascination with the variety of weapons that have been used throughout history up to and including the 21st century.

That is what I know. This is what they told me.

My name is Zada Alozza. I'm seventeen years old and a junior attending Destiny Islands High school/College. I have an older brother named Hasan Alozza who is three years older than me. I have my drivers license, a job at the local library I apparently love, and am an assistant coach at the local training center for wrestling.

That is what they told me, but the only problem with that is I don't remember any of it.

My name is Zada Alozza, and apparently this is my story.


	2. Introductions Redone

_**I, want to go,  
**__**I got to run,  
**__**Run to the moment that set me free.  
**__**You tell me why,  
**__**I hear the sound,  
**__**Sound of my dreams.**_

He looked so nervous, so uncertain, and it was making her nervous as well because she knew it was because of her. They were currently in the hospital room, Zara in a different pair of clothes from the hospital gown that she felt so uncomfortable in. It was an oversized shirt and loose pair of pants that even though it barely complimented her form, she felt a little more comfortable so she wasn't going to complain.

Hasan sat in the single chair in the room in the corner, looking at his feet while his leg repeatedly bounced on his toes while every now and then stealing glances at her. According to everyone he was her brother, but like everything else she had only just found out her name so she was still working on making a connection with him.

Finally, the door opened and the doctor came in. "Hello Zara, how are you feeling?"

She looked at him, and she was reminded of a grandfather figure, but not the good kind, the ones that thought they knew everything and had fun insulting their ignorant grandchild's knowledge. She just opted for a small nod. "Fine sir." She replied quietly. It was instinct to be so quiet, was she always like this?

At the way Hasan winced, she guessed not.

"So the nurse told me you remember things about yourself, but anything basic such as name and family you don't recall?" Another nod. "Alright then." He took out a small pen flashlight and moved her hair aside, clicking it on and shining it into her eyes. "We'll just see here-"

_The lights of the truck flashed through the windows, the sound of screeching tires piercing her ears while the screams came with it. Zara looked, eyes wide as the truck came down on them._

She gasped and immediately pulled away, closing her eyes as her own hand knocked his away from her. She was shaking, and she felt the tears silently stream down her face. Was that one of her memories? Why did she feel so...helpless? There was talking in the room, but she didn't even bother to try to decipher it as she brought her legs into an Indian style position, resting her arms on them while attempting to control her emotions.

Suddenly a hand was on her shoulder and she jumped, her head snapping over to see Hasan there, still nervous, but now worried as well. "Are you OK?" He asked quietly, almost like if he was any louder she would run away.

She probably would have.

"I...don't know." She answered honestly. "Can I leave?" The place was just so sterile, so white.

So lifeless.

He gave her a small smile, and she almost felt like she had seen it somewhere else before. If the doctors were correct and she did have memory loss, maybe she had. "Stay here for a few minutes, I'm going to finish up the paperwork and get the instructions from the doctor." He took off his black and white sweater he had been wearing and gave it to her. "I'll be back in a few."

"OK." She was glad she was able to keep the uncertain tone out of her voice as she took the sweater and shrugged it on, feeling the warmth envelope her and gratitude take over. "Thank you."

"No problem..." It almost sounded like he wanted to add something to the end of that sentence but he had to stop himself from doing so.

"Before this happened." She asked slowly as he paused at the door. "Were we, close?"

He turned to her and smiled again, one with more sadness in it. "Yeah, we were."

XXXXXX

"Z! There you are! What the heck were you thinking going and getting yourself-" Axel yelled out when Zexion took his book that he had been reading and slammed it into the pyro addicts head. "What was that for?"

"We still don't know how much she doesn't remember." He replied sternly as they pulled up to a stop in front of the girl, who was now looking at them cautiously while she awaited her 'brother' to finish filling out the forms. Her arms were crossed almost to keep herself warm and protectively across her chest in the sweater slightly to big for her and wearing a pair of simple black sandals. Zexion looked over and gave her a small nod. "Hello Zara, how are you feeling?"

"Alright." she replied, and he could see the wariness in her eyes. "Yourself?"

"Worried at the moment." Zexion replied with a sigh. "Do you remember me?"

She studied him carefully, and after a minute slowly shook her head. "No. Should I?"

"Well Zexion's a boring guy." Axel interfered, pushing him to the side and standing closely in front of her. "What about me? I've known your brother since the second grade, and you your entire life." He grinned. "That has to count for something."

Zara took a step back, looking slightly more worried. "Sorry, nothing."

"Come on Z..." Axel whined. "You gotta remember something." Zexion noticed how his persistence was starting to worry her a bit, and she also looked slightly...guilty? So he repeated his action from before, and slammed the book into Axel's head.

"Knock it off you idiot." He scoffed. "She'll remember at some point, though I'm not sure if it's a good thing when that concerns you." Axel gingerly rubbed his head, glaring at the slate haired teen when they heard another pair of footsteps join them.

Though Zara still wasn't sure what she thought about Hasan, she did know he was much easier to be around instead of the redhead, so she settled for stepping next to him as soon as he came up to them, giving a small apologetic smile to Zexion since he seemed like the more saner of the two.

Hasan noticed Zara's change in position but didn't say anything, deciding to not put her on the spot. "Hey guys, I'll give you a call later on tonight." He commented.

Zara looked at the clock on the wall and pointed it out to him. "It's two in the morning."

Hasan sighed and nodded, "Wow, time flies. Anyways, I'll talk to you guys later."

"Cya Hasan. Get better Z." Axel said, suddenly much calmer as he looked at the girl in front of him. She gave a small nod, a quiet goodbye to Zexion, then followed Hasan as they started towards the hospital exit, one of the most comforting things she had ever seen.

XXXXXX

It was **huge**.

The house, it was literally a three story mansion, sitting on top of a hill, surrounded by an iron fence with one of the most beautiful yards she had ever seen. The house itself was almost pure white, with two large columns resting on either side of the entrance steps as they drove on the pebble driveway, which was around the corner and pulled up in front of the home.

Zara looked through the window and at the almost intimidating structure in front of her. "So...that's big." She said bluntly.

Hasan chuckled slightly and opened his door, his sister following suit. "Our dad, he liked big."

Zara looked at him from over the top of the car. "Are they waiting inside or something?" Suddenly he fell silent, and Zara felt like she was treading on uneven ground. Sure, they were her parents, but right now she still felt like she didn't even have a family, so the feeling of intruding on someone else's privacy was eating away at her. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

"No, they're your parents too." He replied. "How about we get inside and I'll fill you in?"

She just nodded, now not sure if she wanted to know as they went up the steps of the home. Hasan opened the door to reveal the marble flooring and elegant building structure, Zara looked at the white staircases that followed either side of the hallway that was a straight shot straight in front of her.

A sudden barking filled the home that overpowered Hasan's 'no!' before she found herself tackled, giving a small yelp as she landed roughly on the ground, a large German shepherd on top of her and licking her madly. Thankfully the dog had its paws on either side of her body instead of resting solidly on top of her. "Skia, off!" Immediately the dog backed up off of her and sat down, although grudgingly.

"Skia?" She asked, taking the offered hand and wincing when her bruised body was tugged upon.

"Sorry. Skia is your dog, she found you when you were coming home from assisting at a wrestling match. She trailed you home until you finally gave and let her in."

"Oh." She said, gently patting the dog on the head. Obviously the dog wasn't content with the simple pat, but didn't persist.

"I'll show you your room." She followed him up the first flight of stairs and they continued moving on through the second floor. They passed many bedroom doors before finally hitting the end of the hallway, and coming to the single door there. He stepped aside and she glanced at him for a moment before she walked up and opened the door, feeling a headache coming on at the sight.

Just like the house, her room was huge. The walls were a forest green, the large window on the opposite wall almost taking up the entire wall and revealing the patio on the other side of them. The master bed was to the left , the four polls in each corners supplying the drapes that hid the bed away from the rest of the room. A desk was on one side of the bed with a computer resting on top of it a small pile of books. On the right side of the room there was a door opening into a master bathroom and another one next to it that led into the insanely large walk in closet. Finally, in the corner of the room, Zara felt her feet pulling her to the wall entirely dedicated to the thousands of CDs that rested on the shelves, there was even a ladder to climb up to get to the lower alphabets.

Her hand glided over the stereo system that rested on the ground level just underneath the CDs before moving up and feeling the CD cases that were displayed before her. A small smile unintentionally came across her lips even as the headache slightly intensified with some of the most blurriest flashbacks flying through her head. She glanced over and a more bare shelf and saw three iPods resting neatly on it, and after checking the size capacity saw they were 160GB each. "So much music." She whispered.

"You always did like the stuff." Hasan said, smiling some as he took a few steps away from the doorway. "Are you getting hungry? The doctor suggested you eat something."

"Um. Sure, I guess." Zara watched him nod and take his leave before walking over to her bed, tying one drape to the side and grinning at the bed displayed before her. She crawled on, the soft mattress absorbing her movements before she just went completely limp on it, her aching body feeling in heaven. She heard the dog, Skia, jump next to her and lay down, his eyes seeming to bear into hers before resting his head next to hers, giving her a small lick on her cheek. She smiled softly before her eyes closed, and pure blissful sleep engulfed to her.

When Hasan returned with a small tray of food he found Zara and Skia lying on the bed, the girl asleep while the dog just looked at him with a gaze betting him to wake her up. The brother smiled, and put the tray to the side, glancing outside at the moon still high in the air. Closing the curtain so she was completely engulfed in the darkness he knew she appreciated. "Come on Zara, you gotta remember this."

XXXXXX

Hasan opened the door to reveal Zexion there, who was standing patiently as the cold weather night beat down on him. "Hey Zexion, what are you doing here?" He asked as he let the friend in.

"Is Zara asleep?" He asked.

"She just crashed about half an hour ago. I thought I said I'd give you a call."

"I know, just wanted to stop by and see how things were going." He admitted. Hasan smiled some, out of all of her friends the quiet bookworm was one of her closest. They hadn't talked that much out of all of them, but he did respect Zexion since he helped Zara out the most with non-family-related issues.

"For work at the library I'll explain the situation with our manager, he's understanding. However, I did have a question."

"What's up?"

"Well, school starts in two days, I asked the doctor, and he said that it would probably be wise to put her in a familiar environment outside of home as well. Do you plan on doing this?" Zexion inquired.

Hasan was quiet for a moment, he had completely forgotten about school. Would it be a good idea to put her in that setting so soon? What dangers would be posed? How would she handle it? He sighed, running his hand through his hair. "I completely forgot about it." He admitted, and thankfully Zexion looked understanding. "Honestly, what do you think?" A second opinion would definitely be beneficial at the moment.

Zexion thought for a few minutes. "I would suggest let her go to school, but just be cautious on how she reacts. Especially with all her friends there, we'd just have to watch her reaction in case her normal sarcastic side suddenly resurfaces. When she does remember she'd feel awful." The way he talked, he sounded so sure that she would remember, it was a nice reassurance.

"Yeah, maybe your right. I'll bring it up later on today after she's adjusted some. Skia knows something is wrong with her, but I think Zara is already used to that atmosphere, which is nice."

"That dog is one of her best friends." He agreed, smirking slightly at some of the memories he had of those two. "Is there anything else I can do to be of assistance?"

"Thanks, but I think we're good, I'm going to make a couple of phone calls before retiring for the night."

"Ok, goodbye Hasan." Zexion dipped his head slightly before turning around and leaving the house, leaving Hasan once again alone with his thoughts.


	3. The Other Zara

**And the stars  
****They were shining through the window  
****You feel a little moon glow kind of like a rainbow  
****But then a boom shake  
****Now I'm awake  
****I think its over but its everyday and  
****It's a pretty fine mess I'm starting to make  
****I couldn't tell you I was never afraid**

The school staff definitely had some pride in their school, something you rarely saw, and the clean atmosphere was a different touch too. The large three story building had plenty of windows and was warm in color while outside there was lunch tables scattered throughout lush green grass and hidden in the shades of the trees. To think that this was only one of the small buildings of the entire campus was definitely intimidating.

Destiny High School was only a small part of the combo it created with the Destiny College, so this resulted in people of ages from Freshman to the College Seniors walking the grounds at the moment, and due to no uniform requirements there was a variety of colors and clothing flashing before everyone's eyes.

Among these people was Zara, who stood there with her forest green book bag slung over one shoulder and draped across her chest. Dressed in a pair of black cargo pants, combat boots, and a pure white spaghetti strap shirt, her hair was pulled up into a high ponytail with two of the strands hanging loose and framing her face and also hiding the stitches along her hairline. Currently she had her iPod in, after having decided that maybe the music would trigger something, she had the entire thing on random so one minute she was listening to wordless techno before a loud opera would come on followed by a screaming rock band. Definitely a variety.

Zara set forward towards the building Hasan had told her to go to. He had continuously asked if she wanted help settling in, however each time she quietly declined. She just wanted a chance to take things in her own stride, and not be guided like a mindless sheep. That was also why she was here an entire hour earlier than normal, apparently others had this idea as well as she dodged the crowd of laughing students. She frowned slightly when someone harshly bumped into her shoulder, forcing herself not to wince as her sore muscles were treated that way. "Sorry." Brief surprise came over her when she realized she heard it clearly, and she was fairly sure the iPod was a little louder than the standard volume.

"No problem." She replied, already continuing on her way to the office where she was supposed to go first.

"Wait, Zara?"

Brief annoyance flooded through her, and she honestly didn't know where it came from as she turned around to look at the girl in front of her. Bright red hair that fell to her shoulders and dressed in a white and pink outfit that looked like a dress and vest at the same time. She had a smile on her face as her bright blue eyes looked at her own dull blue ones. "I'm sorry?"

"Zara silly! Where have you been the past few days? You disappeared on us!"

"I apologize, but do I know you?"

Confusion flooded the girl's features and Zara felt slightly guilty as she said this, but she honestly didn't recognize her. "It's me, Kairi? I know you can hold a straight face and all, but seriously, what's wrong?"

Zara studied her for another minute but didn't recognize her, but the look of hurt was really starting to get to her and making her more guilty.

"Again, I'm sorry but I have to go. Have a nice day." Then she turned around and started once again for the office at a little faster pace, leaving the girl behind her and wondering what else the day was going to bring.

XXXXXX

Kairi was honestly confused, what was wrong with Zara? At first she thought she was just playing her, the woman had skill when holding a straight face. But after seeing the look of guilt when she said she didn't know her, she had no doubt that Zara didn't know who she was.

Hurt flooded through her as she stood there, looking at the general direction where Zara had disappeared too. They had known each other their entire lives for crying out loud, with her brother Axel hanging out with Hasan all the time she was always over there hanging out with Zara since they were little.

She immediately ripped out her cellphone and started dialing, a few tears slipping from her eyes as she walked into a random classroom and closed the door behind her. It only took a few seconds before he answered. "Kai? What's wrong sis?"

"Axel." She sniffed. "I ran into Zara, and she didn't recognize me. She honestly didn't know who I was." A swell of emotions was building up inside of her when she heard Axel cursing on the other end of the line.

"Sis, listen, where are you?"

"In the old Biology room." She said quietly. "Axel, what's wrong?"

"Listen, do me a favor and call up Zara's other friends who are close with her and tell them to meet up with you in there. I'll be there with Zexion in a few minutes."

"OK." She agreed, taking a breath. "I'll see you in a few minutes."

"You got it." The phone disconnected and Kairi looked down at it for a minute before nodding to herself and starting to dial again. This time though, with a determined expression on her features.

XXXXXX

In the room they still had about 45 minutes until class began, plenty of time. Axel had called up Zexion, with the former now sitting on the desk and looking for once deep in though while Zexion stood off to the side, as always a book in his hand but oddly not being read. Throughout the desks in the front of the room were some of Zara's closest friends. Starting off there was Kairi, and besides her was Namine, someone who had only just met Zara over the summer. Off to the side was Sora, sitting on a desk with legs lightly swinging while looking unsettled by the silence. He had known Zara for going on six years now, having been introduced by Kairi. Next to him was Roxas, Namine's brother who had also met Zara over the summer shortly after his sister did. Finally there was Riku, also having known her for just about as long as Sora, having been introduced along with him by Kairi. She knew many others, but this ring of friends were some of her closest. Axel had decided to not tell Hasan, who went to the college part of the school, about the quick rundown he was giving her friends.

"Alright guys, you remember that car accident that was on the news a few days ago?" He asked them.

"The one near the shopping center? Yeah, it was the news of the week." Roxas commented, frowning slightly that it was being brought up. They had given out any of the names so while most people had been concerned, it quickly dropped off the radar since no information was being given out.

"Zara was in that car accident." Zexion said calmly. "Her parents were killed, and while Zara wasn't hurt to physically, she was injured in another way."

"If not physically how else?" Riku inquired, disappointed with the news of Zara's parents deaths, she had been extremely close to them, so he wasn't sure how they would take it.

"Zara's door ended up caving in on her." Axel sighed. "The brain trauma she received resulted in amnesia, memory loss." Kairi gasped and her hand shot up to cover her mouth, eyes widening as worry consumed her.

"That's why she didn't recognize me." She whispered.

Zexion nodded. "She's been unable to recognize anyone so far, even her brother. While she is staying with him she's being cautious with everyone she meets and claims to have known her. The doctor said this type of personality is normal for someone who receives amnesia, it's very similar to a survival instinct. That's why we have to be carefully when approaching her, and if she's not sounding familiar with you then to basically start from square one."

"So act like a six year friendship never existed and start from scratch." Sora said, frowning some similar to Roxas as he thought of that. "Do they know when she'll remember?"

"They don't, it could be a few days, few weeks, maybe months or years. It's all up to her." Axel replied with a shrug. "Just be easy on her, alright? Don't want to scare the-"

The door slammed open to reveal the only other person Kairi had text, Demyx. Zara had known him for just as long as she had known Zexion, so almost a solid ten years. The two of them were close, and Zara looked at him as a second brother all the time while he considered her a little sister.

Currently, he looked crestfallen, and like he had just gotten the crap beaten out of him. "Oh my gosh, Demyx, are you OK?" Namine asked, going over and double checking him to see if he was seriously hurt.

"Dude, what happened to you?" Roxas asked him.

"I ran into Zara." He replied, his normally hyper voice very solemn, an uncomfortable change. "I gave her a hug and she freaked. She wouldn't tell me what I did wrong. I give her hugs all the time!"

"Oh Demyx." Kairi replied, walking over and putting a hand on his shoulder. "It isn't your fault. Zara was in an accident and loss her memory of everyone she knows."

"You may have known who she was, but to her a complete stranger was hugging her." Riku said calmly, his arms crossed over his chest as he looked at one of the many students in the school.

"What? When did this happen?" Demyx demanded, the worry evident in his voice.

"Just a few days ago. So you just got to give her time." Namine told him comfortingly. "She'll remember soon enough."

"Yeah." Demyx sighed. "But now I can't give her a hug every time I see her."

"At lunch let's reintroduce ourselves to her." Sora said, his tone excited. "Might as well do it sooner than later."

"Good point." Roxas agreed. "Lunch time it is."

XXXXXX

Zara now had a habit of thinking like she had two completely different lives. There was the one before the accident, aka the 'other Zara', and there was the one after the accident, the 'completely freaked out Zara'. why, pray tell, was she freaked out? During the day the entire school acted like they knew her, the teachers gave her a look that seemed to be like they were mentally picking her apart, and she had been attacked by a blond with the weirdest looking Mohawk she had ever seen calling her, 'ZeeZee'. Now she was on her way to lunch, and only God knew what would happen in here. Maybe the lunch ladies would recognize her from a knitting factory she visited and ask her how the latest sweater was coming along. Did she knit? No clue, but maybe the Other Zara did all the time.

Biting back a groan she started towards the lunch line clutching a couple of books to her chest as she made her way through the back of hungry packs of teenagers. They were serving salad, sandwiches, a couple of cookies, and some other things she didn't really bother with. Zara just grabbed an apple, small bottle of water, and paid before taking a seat in a table in the farthest corner away from the people, her appetite shrinking by the minute. Was the Other Zara this nervous all the time? Pushing the emotion aside she grabbed a book she had found resting on the bedside table and started reading. The nice thing about this being the first day of summer was that the teachers today were going easy on them and not demanding ten page long essays right from the start, something that she breathed a sigh of relief at.

She started reading the book, taking a bite every now and then from her apple out of duty. Apparently she wasn't eating as much as Other Zara did, because Hasan would serve her plate loads of food and she'd only have a few bites before feeling she couldn't eat any more. Another wave of guilt hit her, something she was having happen a lot more often than she would have liked.

When the other side of the table suddenly filled up with people she found herself looking at five other students sitting across from her and two sitting on either side of her. When she saw Zexion there she was somewhat comforted, however on the other side of her was the blond Mohawk attacker, and she found herself moving away from him before a hand was placed on her shoulder. "Hyper but harmless." Zexion whispered in her ear, and she managed a somewhat jerky nod before slowly closing her book.

"Hiya." The brown haired teen said with a grin. "I'm Sora!"

"Roxas." The blond offered, giving a small half wave.

"Namine." She guessed they were siblings, and she definitely had the much more shy nature.

"Riku." His silver hair fell around him as he nodded a greeting, and she saw his green eyes studying her.

"I'm Kairi." It was the redhead again, and she gave a small apologetic smile to her, which she was surprised to see returned with complete happiness.

She gave a small wave to everyone who introduced themselves before the blond next to her nervously cleared his throat. "Um, I'm Demyx. Sorry about earlier, kinda didn't get the news until, well, later." Zara didn't know if it was the nervous smile, the way he was just running his hand through his hair, but she found herself quietly giggling at this, a small smile on her features.

"It's OK." She said, her voice soft as she looked at him. "I apologize for not being able to remember."

"Hey! It's alright, we'll just start from scratch until you get your memory back." Demyx said, his outlook more positive as he rested an arm across her shoulders in a half hug. "And we'll help you out with that." Everyone at the table immediately agreed and she found herself looking at the faces around her, the ones that the Other Zara knew, and started to commit them to memory. If they were going to put effort into this, then she wasn't going to hold back either.


	4. ReLearning The Past

_**You can't kick me down I'm already on the ground  
**__**No you can't but you couldn't catch me anyhow  
**__**Blue skies but the sun isn't coming out, no  
**__**Today is like I'm under a heavy cloud.**_

"_Hey Mom, do you know where my iPod is?" Zara called, looking through her backpack she had resting on the island in the middle of the large kitchen in their mansion. She felt her irritation growing as she tore through it, feeling the dire need to listen to the Violin String Quartet to get rid of the stressful testing day she had just endured. _

_Someone came from behind her and wrapped her in a hug, holding the iPod in front of her already programmed to the band she was just thinking about. She smiled some as she took it. "You left it in your sweater pocket silly."_

"_Ah, the one place I refuse to look." A soft laughter from behind her and her smile remained as she let if fill her ears..._

Zara gasped and shot straight up in bed, jumping slightly when she saw she started Skia who bolted from her lying position to sitting ramrod straight as she looked at her master with a head tilted to the side. The German Shepherd whined slightly and came over, resting their head on her shoulder. She gulped and patted his head before getting off of the bed, the blanket sliding onto the mattress as her bare feet padded across the floor and towards the closet, noting that the clock said it was three in the morning in the bright neon lights. Stepping inside the large room she walked over and grabbed one of the many sweaters on the hangers, sliding it on over her barely concealed shoulders while her long pajama pants kept her lower half warm. She was about to turn around and leave when she glanced down, pausing before bending down and running her hand over the floor paneling that made up the bottom half of the structure. The small crease was barely felt, but there nevertheless.

She didn't know why, but her hands suddenly shoved down and back, almost like the action was normal and done many times. The panels slid away to reveal a small box area. Zara was completely sitting on the ground now, and lifted out a small gift box, setting it on her lap before taking off the lid. She was met with the sight of many pictures, some with the Other Zara, others of just the people she knew or events she attended.

Picking up one, she immediately recognized Zexion, and saw they had their arms draped over each others shoulders as she held her arm out and took the picture, he was even smirking just a little, something she had learned wasn't common for him.

The next one was of her with Kairi and Namine, all three of them were sitting on the beach docks, either ignoring or not aware of the camera that took a sideways picture of them. They were just...talking, small smiles on their faces as they were in each others company.

Then there was Sora, Roxas, and Riku. Sora and Riku were on the ground wrestling, while Roxas looked like he was being the referee of the match.

There was one with her and Hasan, he had his arms wrapped around her from behind and her hands were on his arms. They were both smiling, and in that picture it looked like they were completely ecstatic with life. She flipped it over and read the date, surprised to see that it had been almost a week ago, just a few scarce days before the accident.

She put the picture aside and continued to sort through them, making sure that they were all left in the specific order she found them. Soon she put the lid back and started to dig around more and finding a variety of other things. There was a small book of Japanese poems in a very worn condition suggesting it was read often. There were a few notes that consisted from friends or her family that were specifically put aside. There was a small chest in the back, and when she opened it up she gasped, quickly putting down the box upon seeing a MW Sniper Combat Knife resting on the clean cloth underneath it. Slowly, carefully, her fingers reached out and softly grazed the flat side of the blade, feeling the smooth and cold metal under her skin. Reaching out her hand retrieved the blade and she gripped it, wincing at the headache suddenly coming on.

_The blade in her hand, Zara charged, the metal sliding off of another and equally sharp blade before spinning around and using her weapon to block an attack, the metal inches from her throat. Growling she pushed off her attacker, flipped the blade in her hand, and advanced, the metal clashing once again._

Zara carefully brought the blade through the air, the movements eerily familiar as she conducted them. After a minute she carefully replaced the knife and put the lid back on, pushing it to the side to reach into the hidden hatch again. Her hand connected with another book, and she pulled it out to see it was just a simple black book with red 'x' marks making a fairly cool looking design in the scratchy style. She opened it up, hoping to see what it was about, but found herself looking at a person's handwriting. A journal?

**February 17th- Wednesday.**

**Today he followed through. Dad kept his word and took me to the weapon shop where a friend of his works to go and pick out a blade to practice with. I found the perfect one, an MW Sniper Combat Knife. I'm already got the basics down, and the plan is to have him continue to help me learn and perfect the arts of fighting with a knife. I'm excited, we'll be able to hang out like we used to before work became to heavy and I set off to High School. I miss those days, and didn't realize how much so until I had a chance to have them back.**

Zara paused. So that was where the knife came from. February 17th, that was quite a few months ago, but was this journal written this year or last year? Or was it older than that? She said high school, so it could only be three years tops. So...does that mean the Other Zara knew how to use a knife? She looked back up at the box resting innocently off to the side, and found the idea of knowing how to professionally wield it almost exciting.

Flipping through she found another date in the journal.

**July 25th- Sunday**

**They did it again, stood me up. I even wore a stupid dress to the restaurant they said we'd meet at to have dinner. But they were flying back from Hollow Bastion and were going to head straight over to the place, little room for adjustment. Of course this was when their plane decided to be arriving late, a solid two hours late. And what did I do? I sat there for those two hours, people coming and going from the restaurant and looking like a girl who's date decided to ditch. I guess it fit the situation.**

**I told them to not worry about it, that we'd do it another time, even though I knew that the next chance to arise would be many months from now. The only reason I did so because I didn't want tonight to result how it did, getting my hopes up that they would show up and we'd be able to talk, not in rushed tones or when passing by.**

**Another idiotic move on my part.**

XXXXXX

When Hasan walked into his sister's room around seven thirty that morning he was worried. She was going to be late for school if she didn't get a move on. While he wanted her to rest she had insisted that she get back into the routine of things, but it seems with the amnesia her internal alarm clock had turned off, because last year she would be up often before him. He walked in and saw that the bed curtain was open revealing the empty bed with disorganized sheets. Frowning, he turned and saw Skia there, lying in the doorway and steadily breathing. "Hey Skia, where's Zara?" The dog's head came up to look at him, then back into Zara's closet.

He walked over then paused, seeing the sight in front of him. Zara was just lying there, sweater wrapped around her and another one functioning as a pillow. The panels were back in place and the items previously strewn across the floor were put away, so he went in unaware of the reason she was on the closet ground on the first place. Bending down next to his sister, he reached out to shake her shoulder when he noticed the way she lay, it was more curled into herself than how she normally slept, and her face didn't look restful at all.

Instead he took his hand and moved it to her forehead, frowning with worry when he felt it was much warmer than normal. He moved and put his arms underneath her form, picking her up bridal style to start carrying her over to the bed, Skia at his heels. Putting her down on the bed he pulled the comforter over her and quickly started out of the room, ripping his cellphone out of his pocket and dialing the number the doctor gave him. It took a minute but he finally answered. "Hello?"

"Yes, hello doctor. It's Mr. Alozza, Zara Alozza's brother?"

"Hello Mr. Alozza, how is Zara?"

"Right now she's starting to get a fever and I'm not sure if I should be really worried and bring her in or what."

"Relax Mr. Alozza, more than likely it is just your average fever, after her accident her body is probably just trying to get things in order, its normal for people to get a fever or cold afterwords. Treat it like a normal fever and she will be better in no time. Is there anything else?"

"No doctor, thank you."

"Your welcome Mr. Alozza, have a nice day." Hasan hung up the phone and started redialing, calling the next person he knew.

"Yo Hasan, what's up?" Axel said after seeing the caller ID.

"Zara is sick. Just a fever but I'm going to stay home to take care of her, will you let the teachers know?"

"No problem man. I'll stop by after school to check up on you guys. Call if you need anything, alright?"

"Got it, thanks Axel."

"You know I've got you covered. Cya in a couple of hours." After he hung up Axel looked at his phone, then opened up the texting and addressed it to his sister. _Zara is sick, stopping by after school. Feel free to come._

XXXXXX

As soon as 3:30 hit the doorbell to the mansion was going off like crazy, and Hasan was rushing towards the door to make it stop. Zara hadn't really woken up, though there were times where she had opened her eyes, she wasn't really there before she closed them and was asleep again. When he got to the door he quickly opened it ans was met by an interesting sight.

Six teenagers and his best friend stood there, looking at him expectantly. "I made the mistake extending the invitation." Axel said, not really sounding sorry as he walked in and clapped Hasan on the shoulder. "You've got your army of servants to help out with the sicko."

"She's asleep right now, hasn't really been awake today." He replied as everyone filed in.

"Can we go see her?" Kairi asked.

"Well-"

"Thanks!" He didn't even give them an answer before Kairi took off with everyone else behind her, leaving a chuckling Axel behind him.

Kairi wasted no time running up to Zara's bedroom, knowing this mansion by heart. Everyone else followed close behind, and when they neared her door quieted down while the redhead carefully opened the door and ushered everyone inside.

Her bed curtains were closed and the wall windows had one side of the drapes open to allow them to at least see in the large room. Still being quiet Kairi walked over and pulled one of the bed drapes aside. There lay Zara, curled into herself with her hands under her head, knees to her chest, and comforter resting loosely on top of her. Her breathing was deeper than normal but consistent, and Kairi doubted if she would be conscious the rest of the day. Whenever her friend got sick it normally resulted in her being barely coherent the entire time.

"She looks exhausted." Sora said quietly, standing next to her.

"I know, yesterday must have wiped her out." Kairi tied up the curtain loosely so she could glance back every now and then and turned to see everyone had taken seats around her room.

"How does she look?" Namine asked, sitting at her desk.

"She'll be fine in no time. Whenever she gets sick she's normally out for a solid day before she's on the go again. That's how she always is." Kairi said brightly, sitting down at the foot of Zara's bed. "So what ideas do we have for this weekend? I was thinking we could hit the beach, Zara always had fun surfing."

"Oh! I vote that!" Demyx said excitedly, but still not to loud.

"Of course you do, you practically live at the beach." Roxas replied dryly.

"We also have to go to the music store, that was Zara's second home." Riku said after thinking for a moment. "We'll have to just keep taking her to places that she often went to or had powerful memories at and maybe it will help her regain those memories."

"That sounds like a good idea." Sora agreed. "Namine, grab a piece of paper from that desk and a pencil." So the group started a list of all the places they were to take Zara throughout the next couple weeks, completely engrossed in the plan of helping their friend out in any way.

It was until 4:30 that Namine looked over and jumped slightly, seeing Zara's eyes opened and staring at the wall across from her, which was where Namine was sitting. However her eyes had a glassy look and she didn't really seem to be seeing anything, just looking at some non-existent point. "Zara?" Everyone watched as she quietly walked over and bent in front of the bed. "Zara, would you like some water.

The eyes flickered for a minute before returning to their original pose. "Won't go." she mumbled, her voice sounding detached.

Namine's features turned to those of confusion. "Won't go?" She echoed as Kairi came and knelt next to her.

"Hey Zara, is everything OK?" she asked softly, giving her a small smile.

Zara's eyes locked with Kairi's still glassed over but now looking directly at her, she actually found this unnerving. "I don't want to go." she whispered.

"Go where?"

"Where they are. The bad guys." She buried her head in her pillow and shrunk even more into herself if that was possible. "I don't want to go with them."

Kairi gasped and quickly reached out shaking her friend as harshly as she could allow herself. "Zara, wake up. Come on, wake up!"

"Won't go." She just repeated, seeming oblivious to the actions.

"Zara, wake up it's just a dream." OK, it wasn't a dream, but she wasn't about to switch to saying 'it's just a memory'. Didn't really help their situation.

Sudden Hasan and Axel were there, moving towards the bed. "What's wrong?" Axel demanded.

"She's remembering the abandoned house." Kairi said quickly. Hasan just nodded and sat on the bed bringing his sister into a sister position. She struggled slightly before he took her face and made her look at him. "Zara, listen, it's not real. OK? The bad guys aren't here."

"Not...here?" Namine held back a sigh of relief when her voice sounded more like her own.

"That's right, they're not here. They're gone. So you're OK, you're safe."

Her glassy eyes found his and she nodded slightly with her face still in his hands. "OK." She replied, then he quickly moved to hold her torso when her body went completely lax. It was quiet as he set her back down and recovered her with the blanket. "Of all the frickin' memories, she had to remember that one." Axel growled.

Kairi just nodded and leaned into his side, looking at her best friend. "Do you think she'll be alright?" She didn't really ask anyone in particular, but an answer would be comforting.

"She has to be." Sora said. "We need her to."

XXXXXX

"_Let go!" Zara yelled, struggling against the grip of the two men who held her arms, forcefully dragging her towards the abandoned home. Weeds had overtaken the yard and a few of the windows were had spiderweb cracks throughout them, the frame looked like it wouldn't hold out for long either. It was honestly the last place she wanted to be, especially with these guys._

"_Just shut up and stop struggling." One growled, jerking her harshly._

"_Like hell I will!" She retorted, her efforts increasing twice the amount they were before. But she couldn't gain freedom in time before the door was kicked open and she was shoved in, hearing laughter from all around._

_Landing harshly on the floor she looked around and saw a group of men there, all chuckling amongst themselves as she scrambled up. Her head snapped around to see the door close behind her, and the two who forced her into this mess standing guard. Looking back, she saw one stand up and pick up a knife he had rested on an old table, the blade glinting in the sunlight that filtered through the dusty glass. "Time to send 'em a message boys."_

_More laughing as he drew near, and Zara honestly found no way out of the situation. When she was grabbed again and forced against a wall she could see the blade slowly coming towards the skin on her back, and panic flooded through her as well as the scream teared through her throat._

"Won't go."


	5. More Strangers

**People love you when you smile  
****And hate you when it's through  
****Lots of happiness  
****We are wishing you  
****If you come from Jamaica or Honolulu, yeah  
****Keep a smile on your face  
****I'll see the good that you do  
****  
Smile (smile)  
****And everything will be fine...**

Zara finished writing the answer to the equation and gave a small smile of triumph as she looked at the completed homework in front of her. It hadn't taken as long as she thought it would and now she was completely caught up with school. Granted she had only missed the second day, by the third day of school she was completely fine again and taking on the homework that had started piling on. It had gone a lot faster than she thought she would have been able to do them, she had understood the material and questions quite easily so this would lead her to guess that the Other Zara had an easy time with school.

She sighed and closed the book, looking at the watch to see she still had another ten minutes or so of lunch left. She had decided to ditch the cafeteria and go to a quiet spot behind the school so she would get the work done. While she really liked the people who had been patient with befriending her all over again, she didn't mind the small break from watchful eyes. Gathering her stuff she stood up and started to head over to the entrance of the school, mentally thinking which class she had next-

"HIYA!" Zara gasped and spun around, her books dropping to the ground in the process which resulted in papers spraying across the ground. A girl with short black hair tied back by a cloth wore simple black and tan shorts with a a dark blue and white flowered shirt covered by a black vest. Her shoes laced to just under her knees while the black socks came to her knees. Brown eyes looked happily at her while she stood just a few inches away from her.

"Yuffie, I think you almost gave her a heart attack." A softer voice, much different from the one that had just screamed at her, said.

"Aw, come on Aeris! I never scare Zara so this is gold!"

A quiet sigh and Zara saw another girl come to stand next to the much more hyper one. Curly brown hair pulled back by a pink ribbon. A pink dress with a red vest over it and a pair of simple leather boots, her blue eyes were much warmer in a friendlier way. "Hello Zara, are you OK?"

"Fine." She replied, bending down to start gathering her stuff. When a shadow suddenly engulfed the ground around her she looked over slowly to see a third person, this time a guy. Brown hair that spiked at the tips, a chain necklace with a lion hanging in the center on top of a white shirt covered by a short black jacket, his leather pants had many belts resting on them and he was wearing gloves. Across his face between his eyes there was a scar there that seemed to be a few years old. He looked unconcerned with her so she quickly grabbed her stuff and stood up, stepping out of his way. "Sorry." She said quietly, about to start to walk away.

"Hey Zara! Where are you going?" It was the black haired girl again, who jumped in front of her and seemed bent on keeping her from escaping.

"Class." she replied simply, noting the guy's eyes were watching her closely, a small frown on his lips.

"But I haven't seen you in forever-"

"It's only been a few days." Aeris quiet voice said with a small giggle.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Still, it feels longer." She threw her arm over Zara's shoulder, and felt the other girl tense slightly before politely taking it off of her.

"I'm sorry, but seriously, I have to go. It was nice meeting you." About to take a step away, a solid hand clasped her shoulder and she winced some, looking over to see the same guy looking directly at her as he held her in place.

"Is something wrong Zara?"

"Three strangers, one hyper, one quiet, and one looking about ready to kill me, have me cornered and won't let me go. Other than that I'm doing pretty good, yourself?" She answered, feeling some sarcasm drip into her voice. Where the hell did that come from?

"Strangers?" He inquired, then Zara's eyes widened.

"Ah. You know the Other Zara." She said, mostly to herself as she turned thoughtful. Just how many people did her other half know?

"Care to explain."

"I've termed the Other Zara the half of me that has all of her memories. I'm the Zara who is having people attack her claiming they've been friends for years." She sighed, glancing over at Yuffie who looked confused.

"Wait, you don't remember us? Why!" She cried, looking distressed.

"Accident that resulted in amnesia." She said simply, not really liking the fact she had to say it herself. Just then they all heard the bell ring, signaling they had to move if they wanted to get to class on time. "Sorry, but I have to go." and with that she turned around and started a light run, trying to remember where her next class was.

Yuffie was beyond mortified. "She was in an accident?"

"That can be the only explanation. She's never that nervous." Leon said simply, looking at Aeris.

"I'll ask the others later, maybe they can supply more information." She informed him, who nodded before starting off for the school entrance as well.

XXXXXX

She couldn't help but grin as she walked into the large gym the campus had. They actually had two, this was just the one designated for the High school. She had already changed into the shorts and simple t-shirt that made up the gym outfit, now she just found herself walking up to the PE teacher she had taken an instant liking to. Zack Fair was beyond energetic, and enjoyed putting that energy to use in beating the crap out of everyone with his insanely large sword. She had been informed by Riku that she had fulfilled the PE requirements to graduate, but she was always at the top of her class and apparently Zack had labeled her a favorite.

She came up to him and gave a small smile in greeting. "Hello Zara, ready to pick up the blades again?" He joked.

"Yes sir."

"Wrong."

"Sorry. Yes Zack."

"There you go." He said. He had been as devastated as the others about her memory loss, but didn't plan on letting that keep him from helping her out. "We'll start you off on the basics again, just to see if your body remembers the movements. If all goes well we'll begin the training again. Sound good?"

"You got it." She agreed, then watched as he pulled out two long miniature swords. The handles were a solid black and the blades were the perfect silver, the two simple and solid colors melding into each other.

Zara took the two blades and she found them fitting well into her hands, almost like they belonged there. "They're light." She commented, sounding surprised.

"Actually, no, they're not. But you used them all the time they always felt much lighter to you." Zack commented, taking her over away from the rest of the class and onto one of the fighting mats. "I'll start off with the basics." He commented.

"What about the rest of the class?"

"They're fine, as long as they don't kill each other I'm good." He laughed, and Zara found herself smiling as well.

"To begin, get into position." Immediately her body dropped a bit, one foot planted in front of her and one moving behind her, one blade flipped and she held the held to where the blade ran down her arm and she held that horizontally in front of her while the same happened for the one her other hand held behind her.

Brief shock, and then nothing. It was like her mind shut down and all there was were the blades and herself, looking at Zack, the target.

"_Alright Zara."_

"Alright Zara."

"_Show me what-"_

"You've got."

The memories were hazy in her mind, but it was almost like her body had memories of its own, the ones where they spent hours on end practicing and mastering the techniques she suddenly found herself attacking him with.

She charged, the adrenaline suddenly there as she swung the blades around and felt them clash with his own, brief surprise overcoming him when he barely had time to bring his sword to block the attack. The resistance of the blade felt familiar to her, and this feeling comforted her as she suddenly engrossed herself in the attack. Her leg swung around and caught him in the legs, the blades following for his torso. He was able to turn the stumble into a dodge as he fell back, the blades hairs away from his chest as they passed over him. As soon as she finished the attack she was at it again.

Zack had his Buster Blade with him, and shock took over her features when he suddenly saw _her_. Not the Zara who had lost her memories, and was on the journey of finding them once again. But this was the Zara he knew, the one that had begged him to teach her the techniques to the various weapons he had access to, the one that consistently pushed herself and the one that signed up for any of the fighting competitions that came up to test out the new techniques she mastered. This was the Zara that had more on one occasion made him breath just as hard as her after their training sessions as she got just as good as him.

The look of confusion and being lost disappeared from her eyes, and he saw the bright blue ones he recognized and had seen on so many occasions. He felt a small smile overcome him as he jumped back to avoid the blades. He wanted to see how much she remembered.

With only a few minutes into the fight, with Zack periodically dodging and studying her formation very carefully, some of the other students had slowly begun making their way over to watch, a small crowd forming as they kept a reasonable radius around them since they were moving away from the fighting mats. Among these people was Riku, who pushed his way to the front to see Zara charging Zack again. "She hasn't forgotten how to fight." A calm voice said from beside him. Looking over he saw Cloud there, watching Zara as well as she moved quickly and precisely.

"Yeah, so you know about her memory loss?"

"Leon informed me." He said simply. "It has quickly spread around the school due to Yuffie hitting almost every classroom for the High School and College courses."

Riku sighed. "That doesn't surprise me." Suddenly everyone stepped back as Zack sidestepped an attack and Zara went flying past him, she landed by rolling on her shoulder and coming up in a kneeling position, one hand with a sword on the ground and the other at her side. Her breathing had increased drastically and she was studying Zack, who looked relax but also ready in case she came at him again.

"I...remember fighting. With others." She said carefully, her eyes losing the look of deadly intent as she focused on something. "With large crowds and judges."

"You often joined tournaments." Zack confirmed, coming over and pulling her up. He took a hand and shooed everyone away while he looked back at her. "You were one of my best students."

"There was one tournament though." She said, sounding slightly annoyed as she looked at the ground, her eyes burning into it as she thought hard. "Something went wrong."

_The blade in her hand, Zara charged, the metal sliding off of another and equally sharp blade before spinning around and using her weapon to block an attack, the metal inches from her throat. Growling she pushed off her attacker, flipped the blade in her hand, and advanced, the metal clashing once again. _

_Around the two opponents cheering could be heard from the stands, and off to the side three judges watched the battle, studying the techniques used as the teenagers were engrossed in the fight._

_Her opponent, another teenager about her age, had raven black hair that fell to his shoulders and a well built body that suggested plenty of exercise. His eyes held the same look that she had so often allowed to take over herself, the one where the adrenaline was pumping through your veins and there was nothing you could do but fight until there was no more to fight with._

_She dropped down, the dagger flying over her head while she took her leg and slammed it into his knees, causing him to stagger back as she launched herself forward, the swords glinting in the light as she brought them around and the blades once again clashed._

_She didn't know what happened next, but suddenly there was screaming, people panicking, but this was all muted by the sight of the blood that currently flowed through wounds that they both shared. Across her stomach a gash was present, the blood seeping through the cut on her shirt and falling down to her waist. On his arm a deep cut ran the length of his bicep, the crimson liquid also present there._

_Both of them seemed to snap out of it and quickly disengaged, the weapons falling to the ground as they looked at each other in surprise. It wasn't until the paramedics suddenly came onto the scene that they were snapped out of their reverie and dragged away from the fighting ground, the onlookers transfixed by the red that now encased the floor._

Zara ran a hand over her stomach, remembering seeing the scar when she was taking a shower. Her head hurt again, as it always did when something from her past suddenly came to her. "Was he OK?" She asked Zack, hoping he knew what she was talking about.

"He was fine. You both ended up getting stitches and a few weeks later you were training again, you even met him under a different tournament."

"That's good." she sighed, then found a water bottle being held in front of her. She took it and smiled thankfully at Riku. "Thanks."

"No problem." He replied. "So you remembered something?"

"I remember the tournaments." She confirmed. "A little hazy in some areas but enough to know that I liked playing with knives."

Zack chuckled and patted her on the shoulder. "Zara, you were the one breaking all the rules when it came to them, one of the reasons you're still my favorite."


	6. Bridging The Gap

**I wanna heal, I wanna feel what I thought was never real  
****I wanna let go of the pain I've felt so long  
****(Erase all the pain 'till it's gone)  
****I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I'm close to something real  
****I wanna find something I've wanted all along  
****Somewhere I belong**

"_Dad, where are you going?" Zara asked, coming down the steps to see her father already in a jacket and his suitcase next to his feet as he fastened a scarf around his neck._

"_Off to work honey. I have a plane to catch to make it to an appointment out in Twilight Town with a few of our representatives."_

"_Oh really." She said, standing on the last step and crossing her arms. She was dressed in tight black shorts and a form fitting shirt, black fingerless gloves on while her white hair was french braided and hanging over a shoulder._

"_Yes rea-" He turned around to see what she was in, then realization dawned upon him. "Oh dear."_

"_So the tournament just slipped your mind when you set the date I take it?" she said, her voice holding just a hint of disappointment._

"_I'm sorry Zara, but this was the only time that worked for everyone."_

"_You mean everyone but you, if you had something to go to you would have said it didn't work for you." She emphasized the last two words as she sighed. "Dad, I've been working on this fight for the past three months, this one determines if I go to the championships or not!"_

"_I know, and I promise, I'll make it up to you." He said, coming over and placing his hands on her upper arms. "But right now I have to go."_

"_Yeah." She said, more like an acknowledgment as he could leave now as she shrugged off his grip. _

_He sighed. "I'm sorry, but I'll see you soon." He picked up his suitcase and opened the door, only to find Yuffie, Kairi, and Namine standing there, the self-proclaimed ninja just about ready to ring the door bell. "Hello sir!" She said brightly._

"_Hello girls." He greeted before stepping around them and starting off towards his car. Kairi looked at him then at Zara who now had a look of disappointment on her features. "Where's he going."_

"_Meeting in Twilight Town." she said simply._

"_Doesn't he know this is the fight that promotes you to the championships?" Namine asked._

"_Yep." _

"_Oh." Yuffie bound over to her friend and threw her arm over her shoulder. "It's alright! We'll cheer extra loud and when he gets back we'll talk about how awesome you were so he will be wishing he made it!"_

_Zara chuckled at this but nodded along. "That sounds like a plan."_

"_Good, now grab your sharp knives of doom and lets go!"_

Every day she would spend a few minutes in the morning after waking up and read from the journal she had found under the panels in the closet. She'd wake up around six, go and sit in the large room, and read the journal entries starting from the vary first page and making her way through the almost completely full book. And with these entries, very faint images would dance around in her mind, and she knew they were the memories that went with each entry she would read. Some would be crystal clear, like she was watching them on a High Definition TV screen. Others were more hazy, and she found herself guessing who the characters were and where the surroundings were.

She learned a lot about herself through that journal. One was that she honestly loved her parents, and apparently she spent a lot of time with them, even when their schedules would get so busy and she wouldn't see them for weeks at a time. But she was content with this, it made the time with them all the more special when they honestly put effort into it. She also learned that Hasan was a brother who always had her back and did anything to help her achieve her goals. He was the one that would drive her to the practices for the tournaments, or to her work at the library. With her two parents and older brother, life seemed pretty good.

But every now and then she would come across a journal entry that would worry her. They were so...dark, morbid, and seemed like all the light had been taken from her that allowed her to enjoy life. She would always reference a place, or a group of men, and that was it, almost as if she was remembering an event but referencing it instead of having written it down. They almost came close to scaring her, and sometimes made her think that she didn't even want to remember what happened.

**May 11- Tuesday**

**I had a dream about them last night, the men who made my life a living hell within just a few hours. It didn't last long, but when I awoke there was no way I was going to try to sleep again. This resulted in me downing four bottles of Mt. Dew to last me the morning until I could leave for school. Everyone was concerned, I guess the no sleep really showed. I even snapped at Sora and he didn't do anything wrong! I mean, this is Sora we're talking about. Damn, I felt so bad afterwords but I wouldn't tell them what's wrong. They would want me to pick up the appointments with the psychiatrist again and I just can't do that.**

**...This is going to be interesting.**

XXXXXX

Zexion looked at the clock and saw it was nearing four that evening, close to when his shift at the library would be ending. Gathering a stack of books he set to putting them away in their designated areas while listening to the people quietly read their books throughout the building. These were the kind of people he enjoyed, the quiet ones who locked themselves in their own worlds and minded their own business.

So when he heard the door open he expected to to be any other person before hearing the soft greetings come from the various people who came here regularly. Still ignoring them, it wasn't until he felt a tap on his shoulder that a slight peak of annoyance overcame him before he turned around, eyes widening slightly in surprise and his only hint that he was shocked.

Zara stood there in a pair of simple jeans and a black and red camouflage sweater, a backpack resting on her back and simple shoes tied onto her feet. Her hair was pulled back by a large clip able to hold it all and she had a somewhat calm look on her face. "Hi Zexion." She said quietly, and he realized that he was still not used to his normally sarcastic friend sounding so quieter, it just didn't fit her previous personality.

"Hello Zara, I thought you weren't coming back until next week?"

"I'm not." She confirmed. "But I was hoping that I could ask you a couple of questions?"

This new Zara never ceased to surprise him. "Of course. Let me wrap up my shift and we will get some coffee from the cafe upstairs."

She smiled her thanks. "Sounds good, I'll wait up there." The two story library and a spiral staircase off to the right which she headed towards, once again being greeted by many of the people sitting around in the chairs.

Zexion quickly finished and grabbed his things before heading up the stairs as well, going to the large cafe taking up one side of the building. Already Zara was sitting there, headphones in and clearly exposed and he noticed people that normally spoke to her bypassing her. Ah, that was a technique he had seen all to much.

Going to the counter he ordered one coffee and one hot chocolate, coming over and sitting on the high chairs across from Zara at the two person table. She looked up when he slid the cup over to her. "It's hot chocolate, you don't care for coffee."

She giggled a little and nodded, taking a sip and enjoying the warmth it filled her with. Outside the wind had been picking up and getting bitter on her way over so it was a nice change in temperature. Zexion studied her for a minute and noticed she looked somewhat tired. "Is everything OK?" He inquired.

"What? Oh yeah, everything is fine." She said, taking a breath and thinking for a moment. "I just had a few...questions. Hasan is great and all but sometimes when I want to talk about his family, my family I guess, I just feel like I'm intruding into the personal life of someone else." She said looking down at the table while one hand unconsciously went to playing with a strand of her hair. "So...think you can help me out?"

"Of course." He replied. "What would you like to know?"

"First question, how long have you and I been friends?"

"We met just before high school. The only reason I liked you was because you respected personal space unlike many other girls your age." At this she laughed, and it was nice to see her in a much better mood than after he had seen her in the hospital.

"OK, why exactly does everyone at school seem to know me?"

"You were one of the few students that has probably done every sport, club, and activity the school has to offer as well as you're very popular here at the library. You were always one helping out others and even if you didn't sign up for the class, you would assist others in them." He explained, taking a small drink from his cup.

She looked thoughtful for a moment then nodded. "Makes sense." Then she reached into her bag and he saw her pull out a small book. The covering was slightly odd, with it being black with sketchy red 'x' marks over the cover and she placed it on the table in front of her. "I found this a couple days ago, it's a journal from before the accident." She explained carefully. "There were a few...things, events, that I would reference, and not in the brightest of ways. It's actually kind of creepy. So did anything big happen in my past that would cause me to reference an abandoned home or men who acted like butchers?

Zexion stiffened before forcing himself to relax, staring at the book. "Your parents were very wealthy." He replied quietly. "Others who didn't care for them would attack them from one of their weak points, you. Normally you were able to fend for yourself, there was only one event where you were unable to do so."

_Zara gasped as she was slammed into the wall, pain coursing through her body before she was roughly pulled back by two pairs of hands that started to drag her away._

"What exactly happened."

Zexion paused and she noticed how he was for once looking uncomfortable. "OK, forget that question." She said quickly. "When did it happen?"

"About seven months ago." He replied. "After that you either got over it or became the master of hiding it, we never could really tell."

"OK, that's good enough." she said. "Now a different subject. My parents. Where are they?"

Zexion thought for a moment. "I think you really should ask Hasan about it."

"So they're not currently on some business trip they often take?"

"I take it your journal documented this."

"Yeah."

"That is correct." He confirmed. "Hasan has been wanting to speak to you about them, however he is having a hard time confronting the subject. If you inquire about them I'm sure he would give you the information you want."

"OK, I can do that." She said, twisting her cup around with a small frown.

"Is something wrong?"

"It's just, he seems really devastated, and I have no doubt I have something to do with it. I kind of feel like my loosing my memories that I'm letting him down, something I don't really get since I barely know him at the moment."

Zexion nodded in understanding. "It will just take some time. It may take a bit for your memories to come back, however the previous feelings you held towards your friends and brother are already resurfacing. It just depends on how you view a memory, they are not always images and words."

"Good point." She sighed, small grin on her face. "So I should look at emotions as a form of memories?"

"Exactly." He confirmed.

"Then I've already got a head start."

XXXXXX

Hasan sat in the office, looking at the paperwork he needed to finish for his parents funeral. After all the things legally were taken care of he had started on the arrangements for the event, but he was finding it harder to take on than he thought. It was funny, because in some of his more morbid moments he had always thought Zara would be right beside him helping him take on the headache and heartache.

Sighing he rested his head on his hand, looking at the daunting work before him when a solid knock on the office door startled him. "Come in." He called, and was surprised to see Zara walk in, a strange look of determination on her features.

"Hey Hasan." She said, taking a seat in one of the chairs across from him and looking around the office. "Big room." She commented.

"Yeah, Dad was always in here." He sighed, following her gaze as well. When he realized what he said he inwardly winced and looked back at her face to see her looking at him.

"OK, I'm just going to be blunt because that seems to work." She said carefully.

"You were blunt your entire life, it often got you results." He chuckled.

"Since I still don't really know anyone it's kind of weird asking this, but where are our parents? I mean, aren't they there if a traumatic accident happens to their daughter and they want to help out? Not that I don't appreciate what you do, but from what I hear and read I was pretty close with them."

OK, this was going to be a lot easier than he thought now that she brought it up, but at the same time he was trying to stay composed. "Our parents, they were in the same car with you when the accident occurred." He said carefully.

"So are they still in the hospital?"

_If only in the way you think they are._ He thought, remembering visiting the lifeless morgue. "No." He said quietly. "Our parents died in the accident, you were the only one that survived."

Silence engulfed the room they sat in and he saw Zara's face flicker with all sorts of emotions, but each of them switching to fast to pinpoint what they were. It was until a couple of minutes later that she spoke, her voice composed. "So, are those the funeral arrangements?"

He silently nodded and he looked back at the depressing task in front of him. Suddenly Zara was there, sitting on a corner of the insanely large desk and picking up the business information for the florist. "Didn't our mom like Daffodil's?" She offered quietly, looking at him.

A small smile, one with a hint of sadness as he nodded. She nodded as well and picked up the phone, dialing the number as she picked up the guest list he had made.

So that's how they spent the day, sitting in an office making phone calls to the various places that would bring together a funeral for two of the most important people in the world. However depressing the atmosphere, it was as if a gap had been bridged between them, still a little shaky, but they would be reinforcing it little by little from now on.


	7. Remembering With Consequences

**It seems you're having some trouble  
****In dealing with these changes  
****Living with these changes (oh no)  
****The world is a scary place  
****Now that you've woken up the demon in me.**

It was Saturday, and Hasan found himself sinking back into his father's office chair while his best friend Axel was draped across the chair in front of him, his head falling back over the arm of the chair while he stared at the ceiling. "So how is she?"

Hasan felt himself smile, a genuine this time and Axel took note of this. "I take it things are good?"

"We talked." He said. "I told her about our parents, she told me about how she's adjusting, how she'll remember things faintly here and there and some are more clearer than others. We're just finally communicating and it's like I finally know how she's taking it."

"That's cool, how did she take your parents?"

Hasan sighed. "Well for a girl that lost them. Right now, at least this is how she described it, she feels like whenever she meets someone or hears news that affects her, she's on the receiving end of another person's life, the Zara who has all the memories not the one who is just trying to take care of the headaches they all bring."

At this Axel chuckled. "It took her years of practice to be able to handle all of them in one day let alone in one room. So that doesn't surprise me." They both shared in a laugh, the mood much lighter than it had been in a while.

And it was killed in an instant.

"HASAN!"

Hasan's eyes widened and he saw Axel just as shocked, but neither wasted a moment as she shot out of their chairs and out of the room, running towards Zara's as fast as their legs would take them. When Hasan crashed through the door he was almost frozen by what he saw.

Her entire room, the normal neutral and calming colors that were throughout it were gone, the peaceful atmosphere non-existent. Instead it was like shadows clawed at every corner, absorbing any bright or lighthearted feeling that had ever been inside. The floor was probably the only thing that currently wasn't taken as the shadows slowly crawled from the walls, almost coming as if waves of mist that were slowly spreading from the ceiling outwards.

And in the corner left-hand corner was Zara, silent tears running down her face as she fought against one of the shadows that had taken form of a tentacle as it pulled harshly at her arm, her other hand attempted to push it off. When she saw him he was finally able to pull himself out of his shock. "Please help." She whimpered.

"Axel!" Hasan yelled, running across the room and sliding the final feet as he dropped to his knees.

"On it!" Suddenly the pyro lovers hands were overcome with fire, and Hasan already knew what would happen as it was suddenly sent flying through the air, more directed at the ceiling than anything else as it almost seemed to incinerate the shadows. They immediately started to reside throughout the room but it was almost as if they were hellbent on getting to Zara.

She whimpered again when the pain shot through her arm before jumping and trying to squeeze herself farther into the corner when a wall of fire suddenly surrounded her, effectively cutting off the shadows from her. Remembering Hasan was there and not caring if she looked weak, she put her head into his shoulder and shut her eyes as tightly as she could, fear racking her entire body as well as pain.

She didn't know how long it had been but suddenly a hand was pulling her head out of her brother's shoulder and she was looking into his concerned eyes, Axel, kneeling beside him as he looked her over. "Where does it hurt the most?" Hasan asked.

"My arm." Her voice felt like it was suddenly gone, and only came out in a hoarse whisper because of the screaming for her brother. Axel carefully took her arm and extended it, revealing the harsh state from her wrist to her elbow. The skin looked like someone had grabbed firmly onto her, hard enough to leave the fiery red marks that resided on it. She wince as the tightness that occurred when her arm was extended but tried to ignore it.

"Are the supplies still in her bathroom?" Axel asked.

"I moved them to her closet." Hasan replied, quickly getting up and running for the doors. Zara took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

"What was that?" She asked quietly.

Axel looked up at her then back to her arm. "That's something your brother gots to explain to you."

"Axel?"

"Yeah Z?"

"Is something wrong with me?" Axel paused and once again looked up at her to see her eyes were still closed, but the silent tears were leaking out of the corner of his eyes. Honestly, he was seriously worried. From the beginning Zara had always been one to never show a weakness and put up a fight. Hell, that's where Kairi learned to get her spunky attitude she had today.

"Z, there's absolutely nothing wrong with you." He was pleased to hear his voice held steady. "You're just still adjusting and relearning, give it a bit more time and you'll be yourself in no time."

"But what if I don't want to remember?" This question threw him off guard.

"Why wouldn't you want to remember?"

Finally she opened her eyes and looked at him, somewhat uncertain. "Some of the flash backs I have, they're...scary, dangerous even. I'm not sure I want to remember all of that." She answered truthfully.

Axel paused, but he could see relief as he nodded in understanding, however before he could say anything Hasan came back into the room with a first aid kit. She was silent as he knelt down next to her and started working on her arm, Axel excusing himself quickly before walking out of the room and ripping out his cellphone to dial a number.

"Yeah, I need to talk to Professor Xemnas."

XXXXXX

Kairi hummed softly to herself as she moved about her room, putting up laundry while listening to a CD Mix Zara had burned for her a few years back. A few of the songs were older but they were still her all time favorite songs. But the music was interrupted by a different song entering, signaling her cellphone was going off. Immediately she froze, before running over and ripping it off of her bed. One of the more and rare occurring dark songs that she used to signal only one person was calling..."Zara?" She answered.

"Hi Kairi." A softer voice replied. Wait, did she sound nervous?

"Hey! Is everything OK? We knew you were busy Friday so we didn't want to bother-"

"No no, everything is fine." She laughed. "I just had a question."

"Shoot." She said simply, dropping down onto her bed.

"I need to find a dress." The voice on the other end replied again, just a little bit quieter now. "Our parents funeral is tomorrow and I'm at a loss. I tried the closet but, well, that's kinda the reason I'm calling."

Kairi 'mhmmed' and and nodded to herself. "No problem, what me to come over and pick you up?"

"Actually..." A nervous chuckle. "I'm standing outside your house, can I come in?"

"What?" Kairi went over to her window and looked out to see Zara there, standing wrapped up in one of her trench coats that she had bought with her and Namine over the summer when it had gone from sunny to a few days of freezing cold. Her friend looked up and smiled a bit before raising a hand in a small wave.

Kairi couldn't help but smile widely as she ran out of her room and flew down the stairs, hearing a protesting Axel in the living room who was lounging in front of the TV. She opened up the door and let out a small scream of happiness before choking Zara in a hug. "It's so good to see you!"

"Ditto." Zara laughed, hugging her back before they pulled apart. "I take it this is a yes?"

"Of course! Before I would have to drag you tot he mall with me. This is going to be awesome!" She dragged her inside. "Wait here and I'll get my stuff. AXEL! ZARA IS HERE!" She missed Zara wincing as she yelled to her brother before disappearing upstairs.

Axel poked his head over the couch, faintly looking surprised. "Hey Z, what you doing here?"

"I need a dress for the funeral and don't have one." She admitted. "So I thought Kairi could help me." When in return she got chuckling she looked confused. "What's so funny?"

"Z, there's a reason you never shopped with Kairi before." He chuckled.

"Oh shush." Kairi said, coming downstairs and glaring at Axel. "Now come on Zara, it's time for us to do some shopping.

XXXXXX

_This is going to be interesting._ Zara thought as she stood inside the clothing store Kairi had taken them to. But she had admit that it was nice hanging out with the red head girl, she was pretty sure her happiness wasn't fake and solely because she had a good outlook on life. How the hell did she achieve that?

"Come on, let's go over here." Kairi grabbed her upper arm and dragged her over to the dresses. It only took a few minutes her arms were full of a variety of dresses and she was being pushed to the fitting room. "Ok, just go in and try them on and come out so I can see!" She said happily, settling down into one of the chairs beside the mirror.

"Alright." Zara agreed, going into the first stall and shutting it behind her. She hung up the dresses and after a quick count of hangers she found herself facing fourteen dresses. "Not good." She murmured, thinking quickly before sorting through them.

Possibilities on one side, never-going-to-happen on the other.

She was down to nine dresses. A start.

"So what did you think of the first week of school?" Kairi asked from the other side of the door. Zara carefully took off her shirt and avoided the wrappings around her wrist as she started to attack the first dress.

"It was alright, I really like PE." She replied.

"Yeah, it was always your favorite. You, Riku and Cloud are always fighting in the gym."

Zara frowned slightly. "Am I not friends with them?"

"No no no! I meant like you guys like to fight each other with your weapons. You three are the ones always entering the competitions, and most of the time winning them." She laughed.

The door opened and Zara stepped out, with Kairi smiling widely. "That looks so nice on you!" She cried, standing up and pulling her friend in front of the mirror. Inwardly she frowned some, Zara had lost some weight. Her friend was thin from the beginning, but in a healthy and well muscled way, now she just looked slightly undernourished.

"It's OK." Zara said, not liking how it was so short. "I think I'd like something a little longer."

"Of course." Kairi giggled. "You always did like long and flowing. Try a few others." Zara nodded and stepped back into the dressing room, quickly ripping the short dress off with a look of disgust. Definitely a no.

Meanwhile Kairi took out her cellphone and sent a text. _"We need to do a major potluck, your house OK?"_

"I don't like this one so I'm not going to bother showing it." Kairi smiled, that sounded like something she would say.

"Alright, well hurry up because I want to see another one."

"_No problem. When?"_

"_Monday after school."_

"_Reason why not Sunday? Though I'm not complaining."_

"_Zara is busy tomorrow and we need one soon."_

When the door opened Kairi ignored her phone and tilted her head. "That's...well..." It was a really deep V cut...

"Why would you think I like this?" Zara asked, crossing her arms over her chest self consciously.

"Trust me, it looked a lot shorter on the hanger. Next one?" The door slammed shut in response.

Fourteen dresses later, Kairi had gotten more for her, and a solid hour in the fitting rooms, Zara was smiling as she came out of the stall, and Kairi saw why she was happy.

"That's the dress." she nodded firmly, and Zara could only give a small smile in response as she agreed.

XXXXXX

The day was cloudy with only a slight wind, the atmosphere dark almost as if it knew what day it was. Hasan sighed as he looked at the sky, his hand unconsciously moving and adjusting his tie as he started walking towards the grave sight. Today was not going to be fun, and though he loved his parents deeply he wanted nothing more than to go home crawl under his bed and not wake up for another few years.

"Hey man." He looked over and saw Axel in the same dark garbs as him, his normally sarcastic voice toned down. "How you holdin' up?"

"I'm ready to be done with it already." A small smirk in response as he nodded.

"Zara?"

"Kairi and her aren't here yet." He replied.

"Ah, I was wondering where she ran off to."

"Sorry, are we late?" They both turned around and Hasan would be lying if he said he wasn't surprised. Besides, it wasn't every day he saw his little sister in a dress.

It was a solid black dress that was just above her heels, form fitting at the torso and as soon as it his the waist flaring out some to flow down the rest of the way. It was a one shoulder dress with a front and back strap tying together over one shoulder and the excess material falling over the shoulder of her bare back. In contrast with her long white hair a wide rimmed black had rested on her head, tilted downwards slightly.

Kairi was in a black dress as well, a simple strapless that came straight across and fell down to her knees, a small black jacket on that came down to her elbows with her hair in its simple down style. This was more shocking for Axel, his sister never wore black.

"Hi Hasan." Zara said. "Is this OK?"

Hasan had to chuckle. "You look great Zara, come on." He held out his hand and Zara took it, to be lead farther into the cemetery.

It was twenty minutes until it started, and another half hour that they stood in front of the two caskets, listening to the minister as he spoke with flowers surrounding the entire area. Hasan glanced down, and saw Zara gripping the Daffodil tightly in her hands with her head bowed. "What's wrong?" He asked quietly.

When she looked up she gave a small smile with watery eyes. "I remembered them yesterday morning." she said quietly. "When Dad and I would play paintball, or help Mom out with the garden." She laughed quietly, the tears silently falling. "I remember all of that."

_That's why it came back._ He thought, thinking of the day before and the shadows that had engulfed her room. He nodded and put a hand on her shoulder. "Go ahead." She nodded and in the silence she stepped forward and towards her mother's casket first.

Placing the flower on top to the casket she spoke quietly, her voice only reaching her own ears. "I'm sorry I didn't remember you guys until now." Next she reached over and set a black rose on her father's coffin, he didn't like flowers so she just went with what reminded her of him. "But know that I will seriously miss you guys." She paused, but didn't speak any more before turning back around and walking back to Hasan, choking back a sob.

His arm encircled her shoulders while her eyes not tearing away from the coffins. Kairi stood beside her while Axel was on the other side of Hasan, both friends lending wordless support.

Hasan looked over and Axel gave a small nod. _"Already called him." _He mouthed. He bit back a sigh and nodded slightly before looking back down at Zara, seeing Kairi looked at her with worry. So, Axel already told her. He tightened his grip around Zara and felt her lean into him. He wanted to say it was going to be OK, but that was much easier said than done.


	8. Personality Resurfacing

_Hey guys. So I'm not one of those authors that continues writing the story based on if I get reviews or not. Just throwing it out there though that reviews are welcome. So if you want let me know if you like it, hate it, have a question or just want to comment on a chapter, I always enjoy the inputs. So here's chapter eight and I hope you enjoy.  
-Shadoword_

**  
'Cause it makes me that much stronger  
****Makes me work a little bit harder  
****It makes me that much wiser  
****So thanks for making me a fight  
****Made me learn a little bit faster  
****Made my skin a little bit thicker  
****Makes me that much smarter  
****So thanks for making me a fighter.**

"_Hey Dad! I'm going to head over to the gym for a bit." Zara called, walking past her father's office. She waited for the normal response, but got none. Frowning slightly, she walked over to his door and knocked._

"_Yes?"_

"_Dad?" She pushed it open and saw her mother there too, both of them sitting at his desk and looking at some paperwork on the desk. "What are you guys up to?" She asked, coming over._

"_Just a few matters to attend to." Her mother replied simply with her signature smile. Zara smiled too, but as she picked up one of the papers she frowned._

"_Ah, the matter of creating a will?"_

"_We just have to be prepared for the unexpected and we want to make the process as easy for you guys as we can." Her mother sighed, putting a hand on her arm comfortingly. _

_As much as it annoyed Zara that they were doing something like this she understood how they wanted to be prepared. So she opted for saying something in a more mood-enlightening tone. "Alright, as long as you don't plan on ditching us I'm content." Her father chuckled a bit as he nodded as once again her mother smiled._

"_So I gotta head over to the gym, Tifa and I are taking over for Sarah in teaching self defense since she can't make it today."_

"_OK honey be careful."_

_Zara smirked on her way out the door. "Always."_

XXXXXX

Zara sat on one of the tall trees that resided in the garden just in front of her bedroom, the light from the moon shining down as one leg draped itself across the thick branch and the other hung from the tree, swinging carelessly. She had cheated, stepping down from the balcony attached to her room and onto the branch that she was currently using. Dressed in baggy pajama pants and a spaghetti strap t-shirt that allowed the wind to encase her skin, the coolness of the breeze comforting as her loose hair blew slightly about her shoulders. With the entire garden on display in front of her, she found the scene comforting, the beautiful scene in front of her bringing back memories that she had so often found herself fighting to remember.

XXXXXX

"_Zara dear, will you please help me?"_

"_No problem mom." Zara came over and grabbed the shoulder, taking over digging the hole that her mother was attempting to create. While the older woman could plant the various bushes and flowers residing in the area, it was normally Zara who did the heavier yard work for her. To be honest she loved the feel of working in the yard on a more heavier level, and just talking with her mom when she was planting the small flowers littering the ground._

"_So how was school today?"_

"_It was pretty good, today I helped out theatrics with the set they were building for their upcoming play."_

"_That's nice, how far in are you?"_

"_We're almost done with it." She replied casually with a shrug. _

"_Of course you are, and for lunch?"_

"_We ordered pizza." She laughed. "Mr. Marluxia is pretty cool with us just doing our own thing." _

"_That's nice, by the way, Professor Xemnas called and wished for you to help with the upcoming battle presentation that he will be doing for the students in the class."_

"_Score. Favorite class and I get to beat the crap out of people for others education." _

XXXXX

_Zara groaned as she rolled over in bed, clutching her pillow and digging her face into it as she felt her body temperature burn like a fire even as she kicked the sheets off of her. Feeling like __crap, she attempted to put her legs over the side of the bed and sit up, but she almost fell over completely over her legs before feeling a pair of hands hold her shoulders back. "Ugh, I would thank you but now my head is spinning."_

"_The great Zara sick? How can this be?" She attempted to hit her brother, but it was weak and useless._

"_You suck."_

"_Oh really?"_

"_Either help or get out so when I recover I can have a more enjoyable experience kicking you ass." She growled, crawling back onto her bed and curling up. _

"_See, this is what you get for doing overtime."_

"_Zexion needed the break." _

"_And the gym?"_

"_Tifa needed someone to train with."_

"_School?"_

"_It's school, why the hell are you even asking on that one?"_

_More chuckling, "Good point." She felt the sheets get pulled over her. "I'll be right back with some medicine, OK?"_

"_Mmkay." She said into her pillow, sleeping quickly overtaking her with one more thought running through her head. _What did I get myself into this time?

XXXXXX

Zara's eyes snapped open and she once again scanned the area, a small smile on her lips at the memory. That was the first time she recalled a memory of her brother, and now she finally realized why she quickly grew to like him. When she was insulting him she didn't seem to be doing it out of anger, more like sarcasm. She chuckled when she recalled her reasons on why she apparently overworked herself. Was that normal for her? Did she still do it often?

_Wow, I was brutal._ Now that she thought about it she did seem like her speech was more...threatening, at times.

XXXXXX

Zara stood in front of the gym after have gotten directions from her computer. It was just pushing six in the morning but as she walked up she could see the lights just starting to turn on. Going to the entrance she pushed open the glass door, her presence signaled by a bell as she was met with the front desk off to the left before all the equipment took over.

She felt like she was jumped when a sudden gasp resounded and she looked to see a woman there, long black hair hanging from her head and dressed in an outfit with a pair of black gloves hanging from her waist. "Zara? What are you doing here?"

Zara looked at her closely and faintly recalled the teenager in front of her, probably her age and also extremely fit. "I was looking through a journal and this place came up, I thought I'd visit." She replied bluntly, deciding it was just easier to do it that way.

"Visit?" She tilted her head slightly in thought before her eyes widened in understanding. "Oh yeah! Amnesia. How's that treating you?"

"It sucks." She laughed. "But it's coming back, at an annoyingly slow pace but it works."

"That's good! Oh yeah, well since you forgot I'll just reintroduce myself." She came over and shook hands firmly with Zara. "I'm Tifa, pleasure to re-meet you." She laughed.

XXXXXX

"_Will someone please just for once get this kick right." Zara groaned, putting her head in her hands as she sat on the bleachers._

_Tifa motioned for the students to keep working on their practice before coming over to Zara and sitting next to her. "Come on Zara, you're the one with all the patience for the guys, I'm supposed to be the one getting annoyed."_

"_I know. I know." She sighed, running a hand through her hair. Tifa frowned when she saw the circles under her eyes._

"_What have you been doing?" she demanded. "It looks like you haven't slept for days!"_

"_I have! Just not any good sleep is all..."_

"_What happened now?"_

_Zara paused, made sure the others weren't listening, then replied quietly. "Remember how I was enrolled in Professor Xemnas' class and I was apparently one of the more stronger beginners?"_

"_Yeah?" Tifa replied, not liking where this was going. Her friend had skill, yes, but the teacher __would just creep her out. _

"_Apparently when you're still gaining control over the power, you're subjected to some side effects until that control is gained."_

"_Ah." Tifa said, slowly nodding as she looked at the ground._

"_I've been getting these nightmares that have been scaring the crap out of me. They're disturbing as hell too. So when I wake up I spend the time working on gaining control over the stupid thing so I can sleep for once." _

_Tifa laughed and nodded in understand. "Sorry to hear it."_

"_Don't be, but I am going to ask that you take over or else I'm going to strangle one of them any minute now." _

"_Slushi afterwords?"_

"_Deal."_

XXXXXX

"Nice to re-meet you too." Zara laughed, the memory occurring in less than a second as it flashed through her mind and she released her grip. "So what would I normally do here?"

"Oh! You and I are trainers here at the gym for self defense and just the regular fighting."

"Trainers? Aren't we kind of young for that?"

"Yeah but we're two of the best Destiny Islands gots so it works." She laughed. "Come on, I'll show you around."

Zara smirked and nodded some, "Sounds good."

XXXXXX

It was almost nine that morning when there was a loud knocking on her bedroom door, and before she had time to stand up it flew open to reveal Demyx there. "Hiya Zara!"

"Uh, hey?" She offered, standing up from her desk and closing her laptop. "What's going on?"

"Well, since school canceled last minute everyone is meeting up at Sora's place for a barbeque! They sent me to come pick you up!"

"OK..." She carried it out. "And they couldn't have called?"

"Of course not, then it wouldn't be as fun as someone barging into your room to drag you away like you were being kidnapped." He said cheerfully, and she laughed at the grin he had on. "No go get on a bathing suit, throw some clothes over it, and let's head out!"

"Alright alright, just give me a minute."

"To long." He wined, earning another laugh from her as she went for her closet.

XXXXXX

"I thought we were going to Sora's?"

"Change of plan, beach then Sora's because his isn't up to date."

"And why didn't you tell me this?"

"Because you still get wet either way so its fine." He said happily, dragging her through the sand and down the beach towards the docks that rested down a ways. Children and adults splashed in the water while others sunbathed on towels.

"Everything alright?" He asked, noticing her pausing as she looked at the water with a look he wasn't familiar with.

"Hm?" Then she seemed to snap back and look at him. "Oh yeah, I'm good." She continued following him and soon they found their group.

Riku, Sora and Roxas were in the water with Kairi, Yuffie was there too. Then on the beach she saw Namine under an umbrella with a sketchbook along with Aeris and a blond haired guy she didn't recognize. "Hello Zara." The brunette greeted.

"Hello Aeris." She replied with a nod in greeting. She had made a habit of making profiles for all the people she ran into, and had quickly decided she like the brunette seeing as she was much less hyperactive than the others, a nice change.

"How have things been?" she asked as Demyx jumped into the water and left her standing with them.

"Alright." she shrugged and smirked slightly. "A brutal walk down memory lane."

The blond also smirked. "You sure sound like the Zara I'm used to."

She looked at him and tried to but a profile with him, but none came to mind. "Glad to hear it, which one are you?"

"Cloud Strife." She nodded and they shook hands.

"Pleasure." the broke off and she took a seat on one of the many towels taking over the beach. "So how do I know you?"

"Gym mostly." He said. "You're one of the few people along with Riku and Leon I don't mind fighting."

"Good thing?"

"Very good thing." Aeris giggled in reply. "Then she thought of something. "So what do you remember mostly?"

"I remember my parents, a little bit of Hasan, bits and pieces of you guys, and a serious hatred for school for some reason."

"No, you just hate the class work, you actually enjoy the classes and groups themselves." Namine replied. "At least, that is what you told me when we first met."

"OK, that sounds reasonable."

They were there for a few hours, and Zara had to admit she was enjoying herself. After a while instead of going to Sora's a few of the others had gone to grab food and bring it back to the beach. It was probably nearing one when a new party joined, and she had never felt a more powerful need to hit someone in the jaw.

"Well well well, who do we have here?" Zara, who had been lying on one of the towels with her eyes clothes and absorbing the sun reluctantly opened her eyes, her black shades that rested on her face blocking most of the glare as she looked at another blond above her, however he had a black beanie on his head, open white trench coat with baggy pants stuffed in a pair of boots. Another defined thing was the scar very similar to Leon's.

Profile: Asshole.

"I know you?"

"Aw, the girl doesn't remember me? How rude."

"I've re-known you for three seconds and already I want shoot you." She replied bluntly, pushing herself up and standing in front of him.

"Seifer leave her alone." Kairi sighed. "Last thing she needs to remember his how much of a jerk you are."

"So what's wrong with you? We have nothing but good memories to recall." The sarcasm was obvious.

"Oh joy." Zara sighed, running a hand through her hair as she looked him over again. "So can you leave now or do I have to put up with more?"

"Just a few more things." He said, suddenly grinning. "How did the happy funeral-" He didn't finish before he found himself on the ground on his stomach, arm pinned painfully behind him and head twisted to the side for air as her hand pinned down his head, her body resting on his and restricting any movement.

"I dare you to say one more word so I can have free reign on taking my daggers and driving them through your thick skull." She growled. "You will _never_ speak about my family because a lowlife like you doesn't even deserve to utter a word about them. And if I hear you talking about them, or some other person's family in a degrading way as that I swear I will let myself enjoy killing you in such a gruesome death that there will be absolutely no regret afterwords. Are we clear?"

A grunt in response before she raised her knee and slammed it into his spine. "Are we clear?" She ordered.

"Got it." He spat.

Zara leaned down and whispered into his ear, her tone as cold as ice. "Now go before I change my mind, and trust me, it's very tempting right now."


	9. The Profiles

_Hey guys, unfortunately this November had alot of unexpected events and I've been working to stay up to date with my NanoWrimo and resulted in this story not getting alot of attention. However once November ends I am sure that alot more will be off my plate and the updates will be much more frequent. Thanks.  
-Shadoword_

**As we go on  
****We remember  
****All the times me  
****Had together  
****And as our lives change  
****From whatever  
****We will still be  
****Friends forever**

**Name: Kairi**

Personality: Kind-Fighter-Threatening to others at times-Stubborn

Facts: Best friend almost entire life. Older brother named Axel, and goes to Destiny High School. Hates it when I overwork myself. Only other person who knows every other student on campus. Favorite place to hang out is my house. Least favorite person is Seifer.

Most Detailed Memory: I made the mistake of staying up to late doing schoolwork on a Saturday. Some how she found out and I spent my entire Sunday locked in my room with the door blocked and the patio leading out of my room with three of the guys sitting there the entire time so I wouldn't leave.

**Name: Axel**

Personality: Full of himself at times-Joker-Caring (in his more unique kind of way)-Considered a non-related brother-Sarcastic to extreme levels

Facts: Hasan's best friend almost his entire life. Goes to Destiny College. Well known on campus for his pranks but one of the best top grade students there. Addiction to fire and the phrase, 'Got it Memorized?'

Most Detailed Memory: Him and Hasan once double teamed me when I was at the gym once, claiming they wanted to see if I could really fend off any perverts that would try to attack me. Battle resulted in both of them on the ground on their sides, with their hands and feet tied to a position very similar to a bull. (Rope courtesy of Tifa.)

**Name: Hasan**

Personality: Caring-Protective-Joking-Definitely the big brother personality

Facts: Blood related brother. Goes to Destiny College. One of my best friends as well as brother and only sibling. Easily stresses out about major events which results in me somehow helping him slow down and relax. Takes his studies very seriously. Also takes me very seriously, (apparently I had/have a lot of good stuff to say.)

Most Detailed Memory: I was practicing for an upcoming tournament at the gym one night, it was late, maybe around ten? He ended up coming with me and staying the entire night to chat and just watch. Ended up ordering pizza and sodas and not getting home until around four in the morning.

**Name: Sora**

Personality: Hyper-Entertaining-Fun-Caring

Facts: Known for a few years. Willing to go to great lengths for his friends. Helped me out the most at my tournaments, (the off key cheering was encouraging most of the time). Hates it when someone is depressed, and feels it is his responsibility to change this, often times he got the wrong impression from Zexion.

Most Detailed Memory: Probably around the age of eleven him and Riku took me to the beach, Kairi couldn't come because of a trip she was on, and unfortunately made the two boys promise to 'take care' of me, aka don't let me stay locked up in my room. Unfortunately for me they decided to take these responsibilities to the heart at around six in the morning on a Saturday. Late night, dead tired, I'm sure I was fun to hang out with. After a bit of refusing to get into the water and simply sit on the docks, a soaking wet Sora resurfaces right next to me and asks one more time if I would come in. Once again, no. After simply nodding, which I thought was one of understanding, it was actually a signal for Riku who was standing silently behind me to push me in. Their victory was short lived as I almost killed them afterwords.

**Name: Riku**

Personality: Calm and collected-Sometimes sarcastic but not often-Competitive-Not a bad leader

Facts: Known Sora almost his entire life, known me for about as long as Sora has. Enters in the tournaments I do but we rarely get to go up against each other, most of the time wins. Not really outgoing with strangers, unlike Sora, but pretty talkative with his own friends. Doesn't make threats, normally just goes straight to nailing them in their face with a pre-made fist.

Most Detailed Memory: He happened to be the one that taught me how to serf apparently. One summer we spent the entire time getting up at five in the morning, meeting at six, and hitting the ocean for about five or six hours at a time before carrying on with our day. By the end of the summer I had almost mastered surfing, and thanks to Sora with Kairi's encouragement we both entered an End of the Summer surfing tournament. He took first and I took second place.

**Name: Zexion**

Personality: Quiet-Not shy-Smart-Assessing of situations-Hates anything loud

Facts: Sora is his least favorite person. Not very social with any strangers but only with the very few people he knows. Almost lives at the library and takes his studies very seriously, though for him they're pretty easy at Destiny High School. Only person who has known me almost as long as Kairi and Axel.

Most Detailed Memory: One semester an English project paired them together to almost rewrite the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet in a form that still held true to his outline, but substituting the old English words for modern day words that would be easier for someone of their period to understand. Two week project. First week was completely spent on arguing the format of the words. Second week was spent ripping up any attempts at starting one together. Turns out they both had written their own without the other knowing and submitted them both to the teacher. After laughing at them he read them and gave them each a 45%, crushing their spirits until he said each book was one half of the grade, overall giving them a 90% on the project. Remained friends, now makes every attempt to not get paired together.

**Name: Demyx**

Personality: As hyper as Sora and then some-A little slow but catches on at some point-Either you like him, or you feel the need to wring his neck, I'm is not one of the people from the second group.

Facts: Known Zara since the beginning of high school. Average student except in music, where he's all 'A's'. Addicted to music and water, spends half his time doing one before turning around and spending the second half on the other. Very little patience and has an extremely hard time sitting and doing nothing. He's the one that got me to appreciate swimming right before Riku taught me how to surf.

Most Detailed Memory: We met in our first music class in our Freshman year. Started off alright until we almost got in a fist fight on which composer was the best in the genre of Soundtracks. Teacher threatened to kick us out, however as soon as we left the fight went on the entire day. Not sure who we picked, but resulted in us being pretty close friends after that and building off the love for music.

**Name: Namine**

Personality: Very sweet-Extremely shy at first-Creative-Encouraging-Trust able

Facts: Met her over the summer with her brother Roxas. Loves sketching and hard to get to talk until she knows you a little better. Very kind, and while this is nice if she didn't have her brother the world would probably eat her alive. Soft spoken and good grades, and you can trust her because she won't betray that trust even if her life depended on it.

Most Detailed Memory: We ended up meeting at the cafe to meet everyone else, turns out they had to bail and it was just the two of us. She was downright nervous until I made some sarcastic remark about our friends sucking at keeping a schedule, then she laughed. Spent almost the entire day drinking hot chocolate and talking until her brother called and asked where she was. After telling him the cafe he thought she was stuck there because of no ride. I took the phone and told him she was here because we were hanging out. Once again, she laughed and her brother was in a state of shock.

**Name: Roxas**

Personality: Tough-Caring for his sister-Blunt and sarcastic at the same time-Can hold his own

Facts: Not a bad boy but knows the tricks of the trade of surviving life. Incredibly protective of his sister and they have a pretty good sibling relationship. Didn't really start making friends until this past year, where Kairi met Namine and suggested he meet her other friends. Now the poor guy is stuck with us.

Most Detailed Memory: Over the summer all of us had gone on a trip to Radiant Gardens, just a few hours away from Destiny Islands. There was a major mall there the we wanted to go to. Somehow all of us ended up splitting and Roxas and I were stuck in a video game store. I learned that day he had an addiction to video games, which became really fun since they had a promo of Resident Evil 5 open for anyone to play. Duel Player had never been so much fun, that's probably when he decided I was the most sane out of us all, which I could see the logic in that decision.

_**Others:**_

_**Aeris- Kind flower girl at the local market and Destiny High school. Not shy but definitely more calmer than the other girls flooding the place.**_

_**Cloud- More stern and definitely challenging, the third person besides Riku and myself that participates in the tournaments we go to.**_

_**Leon-Similar to Cloud, stern and intimidating, if it wasn't for Yuffie dragging him with her everyone to meet everyone I'm sure he would be a loner, and I don't think he would be complaining.**_

_**Yuffie-Warning: No caffeine or sugar. At all. Hyper 24/7 and a self proclaimed ninja with some pretty good fighting skills. **_

_**Seifer- The asshole that everyone hates. **_


	10. ReLearning The Powers

**Back up, you don't know if you've never been here,  
****You've never been to the place inside, I face my fears  
****It takes everything I am.**

It was six thirty and already she was standing inside one of the buildings on the school campus, only a few people walking the hallways at the moment. Her book bag across her shoulders she started towards the classroom that she had memorized the directions to. She had gotten the call right after she got back from the beach, a man named Professor Xemnas had asked to meet with her in the an hour or so before school, apparently there were matters to discuss. Only reason she had agreed right away was because the name had sounded seriously familiar, so she was just going to roll with it.

The classroom was on the third floor in a corner of the building she had never been in before, one that was somewhat offset from the rest of them. Stopping in front of the door, she glanced around then looked back at it before knocking, wondering if he was already here. "Come in."

The room itself was huge, because all the desks lined the walls instead of in row formations throughout the room, leaving the center to be fairly empty. Walking in the desk was still in front of the classroom, the only wall with no student chairs along it, and behind that desk sat a man with spiked silver hair and a set of deep almost orange eyes with a hint of red. He was dressed and almost completely covered in a black coat that she had to say didn't look out of the normal even though the place was pretty warm, it just seemed to fit his type of person. "Professor Xemnas?" She inquired.

"Yes, hello Zara." He said, glancing up from some paperwork he had been doing, she stepped in front of his desk and he studied her for a moment. "You've lost some weight." A blunt fact.

_Was not expecting that._ "OK..."

"Probably another reason it has been having an easy time targeting you, your body is malnourished and therefor weaker, so you're going to have a harder time with control."

"Control with what?"

"The darkness you wield." He sighed, putting down his pen and leaning on his desk with his fingers interlaced in front of him as he once again looked her over. "Is there a reason you're not eating?"

"Because I'm not hungry. And why is a teacher asking about my eating habits?"

"Because two reasons." He began. "One is your not stupid, and two is you're going to need it if you're going to survive this class."

"Since when did I get transferred?"

"When I got a call saying that you were attacked by your own darkness that you normally have control over. When did you stop your practices?"

"Practicing what?" She asked exasperated. "What? The darkness? I don't know what your talking about since I can't really wield anything except a set of daggers, that's all." Silence fell over them before he turned thoughtful.

"What happened within the past two weeks or so?"

Zara's eyes widened slightly as the realization dawned on her. "I'm sorry sir, but about two weeks ago I was in an accident and received amnesia, so right now I'm not entirely understanding what you are trying to say."

He nodded, seeming to understand. "That makes sense. Listen Zara, what this class teaches is how for a person to wield the power of darkness, I'm one of the few teachers here that helps students gain an understanding of whichever power they were gifted the control over."

"The power of...darkness. You mean the pitch blank kind?"

"No." He nodded to something behind her and she turned around, jumping back when she saw the corners of the room suddenly engulfed in the shadows that she could have sworn she dreamed about. She had decided the incident with Hasan and Axel rushing in was just some stupid dream that she had had, besides if it was real she would have woken up with the red marks on her arm, which she didn't.

The shadows disappeared suddenly and she turned back to him, eyes wide. "I was informed something like this occurred a few days ago, correct?"

"Yes sir." she whispered. Wait, that was real? How the hell did that happen?

"A student named Axel informed me that they had dominated most of your room and had attacked you, resulting in an irritated arm but that is it."

"But when I woke up it was just fine." She argued.

"Yes, because the darkness that attacked you was your own, if you were assaulted by someone else the wounds would have been greater but with you in control your body healed quickly."

"How did I even call it forth then when I had absolutely no idea I even had it?"

"The darkness you wield plays heavily on your emotions, and when one is much more dominant than all others this could result in it overcoming you entirely, or if you know how to wield it, allow your power to be that much stronger."

Zara nodded slowly as she took this in. "So tell me Zara, what emotion had you felt during that morning?"

After a moment she answered. "I remembered my parents, everything about them. Then I realized that they really were gone, so I guess the emotion more powerful than the rest of them was depression."

Xemnas nodded as he stood up from behind his desk. "This is good to know. Now tell me, are you going to work diligently in this class? I refuse to take anyone who will be wasting my time with nonsense."

Zara had to grin some as she nodded. "If you are going to tell me what's going on, I'll uphold my end of the deal as well."

Xemnas nodded, seeming pleased with this answer. "Good. Now follow me, neither of us have any classes today because I want to immediately start you training once again."

"Again?"

"You were in my class for the past two years, one of my best students in complete control of your powers. The reason you didn't sign up this year was because you did well enough that there was no more to teach you."

"Oh." She replied, frowning some. _Maybe it will come back to me faster then since I've already done it._

"Now come, we will be using the second floor for our training with a few of the other students that I have requested to help us."

XXXXXX

Apparently the building Zara found herself walking was because it was specifically for students who had gifts, as she decided to call it. Sure, it was unoriginal but it was something. She had thought that the power of darkness was the only skill. But apparently there were a few others. The power of light, of fire, and of water. Those were the three others that the class were available, and all three had the second floor of the building dedicated to the training center for these powers. _How the hell did I not know about these skills?_

Coming to their stop, Xemnas opened up the door to reveal the entire floor with no walls breaking them down into rooms. To the very far left was an area and she immediately termed it was for those skilled with fire. The rest of the room seemed to be a mix for the dark and light wielders. "What about those for water?"

"They have use of a pool that is used outside behind the building." He replied, walking along the edge to the right as she watched some of the students train.

"Heads up!"

Zara spun around as did Xemnas as he growled a curse at the ball of fire that was coming for them. He sidestepped but looked at Zara, remembering that she may not have made it in time. But he paused, and studied her carefully to find himself slightly surprised at what he saw.

The ball of fire, maybe two feet in diameter, came flying for her. But she couldn't bring herself to move, but instead almost mechanically she brought her hand up and watched as a wall of darkness appeared in front of her, practically feeling the fire collide with the shield but not feeling any pain. She didn't see, but Xemnas did see the familiar darkening of her eyes, how they went from her deep blue to almost pure black. As soon as she dropped the shield the look in her eyes disappeared, and Zara was blinking almost as if she didn't know what had happened.

"So you do remember some of the lessons." He replied.

Zara looked at him. "What are you talking about?"

"You just fended off the attack." He pointed out.

"I...did?" she was looking at him, before her eyes turned calculating almost as if she was trying to remember.

Xemnas frowned. "You don't recall what you just did?"

"No, I honestly thought I blacked out for a second before I came back around." She admitted with a sigh, running her hand through her hair when a pair of footsteps came running up to her. "Sorry about that Z."

"Hey Axel." She greeted. Another thing that proved to her that the events that had conspired that morning weren't a dream, and that Axel for sure had ended up having his hands light up on fire. To her surprise, she couldn't find herself to be freaked out. This power thing she found others and herself having almost seemed...normal.

Axel had to go back to his training so when she turned back to Xemnas she said the only thing that came to mind. "Teach me."

XXXXXX

Axel sighed as he walked out of his final class for the day, glad to be out of the school and out in the fresh air again. Around him the students all flooded towards the parking lot as he too made his way there before he felt his cellphone going off. It turned out to be a text from his sister. "_Hey Axel, me and the others are taking Zara to the mall for a while, I'll be home later on tonight."_

He smirked slightly as he found out what he was going to be doing for the day. It only took a half an hour or so before he arrived at Hasan's house and knocked on the door before opening it himself. The maid there took one look at him before nodding, knowing this was natural. "He's up in the study."

"Thanks." He replied before going down the hallway on the first floor. it wasn't long before he walked into the office to see Hasan in there, looking at his notes for school and the upcoming test coming up. "Hey Hasan. How's it goin'?" Axel asked as he walked over. He would have dropped into the chair on the left before stopping himself, seeing Skia resting comfortably on it and only moving her eyes to look at him. Hasan started laughing at Axel's disgruntled look as he opted for the other chair.

"Dad used to hate it when she would sit in the chairs. But since I started letting her do it, well, mostly Zara anyways, it's become normal." He commented, rubbing his eyes in an attempt to wake up. "How have you been?"

"Not bad, had an interesting day today and since I couldn't catch you during school I thought I would share." Hasan raised his eyebrows at this and waited for him to continue. "Dude, you're sister may not remember how to use her powers, but her subconscious sure as hell does. She just about obliterated the training room."

"Zara was in that class today?" Hasan said, slightly surprised.

Axel nodded. "Yeah, Professor Xemnas kept her all day for 'review'." He did air quotation marks with the comment. "Everyone thought she had gotten her memory back with how well she was doing in training."

"Wow, that's good to know, did you see her afterwords?"

"Kairi and the others dragged her to the mall, they shouldn't be back for a few more hours." Axel sighed, leaning his head back against the seat. "So how have things been with you two?"

"Things have been alright, really busy. Apparently Zada kept a journal before the accident, so she's been visiting the places that she wrote about. I've been working on my parent's business, I was able to work it out to where I can finish this year of school before I'll take it over."

"That's good to hear." He agreed. "How's her memory been?"

"She's remembering some things, but, and these are her words, they're the 'unimportant' kind that don't give her hints as to who she's with or where she was. She's actually getting quite annoyed about it."

"If it wasn't for her saying she didn't remember, there's times where I swear she's the old Zara, her attitude is coming back." They both laughed at this.

"I know it, and I can honestly say I have never been so happy to hear her threaten to rip my throat out." Hasan laughed. He then sighed and looked at the notes in front of him, "You feel like studying for that exam we have Friday?"

"No really but I'll help anyways." Axel groaned before dragging the chair over and getting started on the lessons.


	11. Two Different Views

**I'm too young  
****To lose my soul  
****I'm too young  
****To feel this old  
****So long  
****I'm left behind  
****I feel like  
****I'm losing my mind**

Zara discarded the idea of sleep as she got up and headed for the bathroom, flipping on the light to look at the large mirror in front of the sink. Turning on the cold water, she cupped her hands before bringing it up to her face, the cool liquid seeming to help a bit as it refreshed her mind that had been playing over the vivid memories that seemed to float just underneath the surface.

Letting out a sigh, she straightened up again and studied herself closely, her pajama clothes showing her pale skin in the lighting. Her hair was cascading around her shoulders and her figure wasn't as relaxed looking as it normally was when she remembered something from the past.

After a moment she reached down and pulled up her shirt, bringing the cloth up just to her chest and looking at the few faint scars on her stomach. They were only a few of the variety that laced her body, almost all of them in areas that any type of clothing could hide. One hand came down and gently skimmed the one just off to the left side of her torso, and the image of the blade coming down on her flashed through her mind, causing her hand to freeze as it dissipated.

Zara sighed as she pulled her shirt back into place. There was definitely no chance of sleep now. Turning around she headed out of the bathroom and towards the balcony, opening up the doors and stepping out into the cool morning air. After looking over the garden for a few minutes, a small smile adorned her features before she closed the doors and walked over to the edge, climbing onto it before jumping onto the tree branch right next to it and starting her descent down.

XXXXXX

Hasan carefully made his way through the clean and blooming garden that made up their backyard, his bare feet settling onto the soft grass underneath him as he walked on in a pair of simple jeans and loose t-shirt. It was around six that morning and on a weekend, and after figuring out he couldn't sleep he decided to go take a walk, something he had developed over the years when the stress would settle in.

Around him trees shielded him, flowers awakened to the morning, and the rustling of leaves from the barely noticeable breeze surrounded his being as he continued his walk. It was a nice change, something that he hadn't done in a while ever since the accident. He sighed, and started making his way to the small lake-looking pool that his mom had installed. He had loved playing in it when he was younger, and soon as Zara was old enough he had been in it almost every single day to go play in the water with her.

Rounding the corner he stopped mid-step, eyes widening at the sight before him.

Zara stood over the pool, her back to him and her head bowed, dressed in a pair of simple shorts and spaghetti t-shirt, obviously her pajamas. Her hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail, and her form was tense but at the same time comfortable in its position. Under her feet it looked like two dark disks had materialized underneath them and held her form up as her feet carefully moved over the water, the disks following her steps and seeming to keep her from falling into it. "Zara." He breathed, the shock still on his face.

His sister whipped around and he watched as her pure black eyes quickly faded back into blue, her own eyes widening and milliseconds later her form dropped underneath the water as her control over the darkness left her. Hasan snapped out of his thought and ran for the disturbed water, coming to a halt at the edge when she came back up, taking in a few breaths and letting out a low groan. "Dammit, I had it too."

"What were you doing?" He asked, holding out his hand out to her. She took it and was hoisted back onto land.

"Couldn't sleep, so thought I would practice a bit. That practice led to me trying out different things to see if I could do it." She replied with a sheepish smile. "I guess I have to work on my concentration a bit."

Hasan chuckled and nodded his head. "I'm glad to see you're getting the hang of it though." In the warm morning air Zara didn't feel cold as she pushed her stray wet hair out of her face.

"So what are you doing out here? It's still kinda early." He sat down next to her and she let her feet sink into the water, lightly moving a leg around to cause ripples in the service. He kept his own feet up as he replied. "Couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd take a walk."

Zara shrugged. "Makes sense." Hasan laughed again, seeing his sister how she used to be start to resurface. "Hey Hasan, what was I like before?" She asked curiously, staring at the water instead of looking at him.

He paused, thinking for a moment before smiling some. "You were challenging, and not in a bad way. If something countered your beliefs or morals you would challenge it until one side lost, normally it wasn't you." His smile grew. "You could be very sarcastic at times, and unless the person knew you then others would find it beyond rude, but everyone got used to it. You knew how to read people, what made them comfortable or uncomfortable, and you were normally able to get even the most tense person to loosen up. You forced people to be more unique and be themselves instead of, or how you liked to put it, 'be just another fake barbie doll.' You hated those things growing up."

Zara grinned. "Now that sounds familiar."

"You always hid your emotions very well, everyone could never find out what was going through that head of yours. But when someone ticked you off, they were screwed. Only a few times did you get that angry." His smile was softer now as he looked at the water before looking at her, meeting her gaze. "You were selfless, sometimes to the extent I honestly worried if something bad was going to come out of it. But a lot of people were spared pain that you voluntarily took onto yourself."

Zara nodded slowly before looking back at the water. "Did...did I ever do anything wrong to make some of our parent's friends hate me?"

Hasan was shocked by this question. "Why would someone hate you?"

"I finished reading that journal a few days ago." She said carefully. "When I did these memories, they started coming up and they were pretty brutal. No one in them said anything, but I do know that they centered around our parent's reputations. I just assumed that either their friends or enemies didn't like me after...remembering, what happened." She was frowning now.

"What were the memories like?" He asked quietly, hoping it wasn't what he thought it was."

"There's this old house," _Damn. _"And I was dragged inside. Long memory short I'm beaten mocked, and left on the floor for a few hours before the doors are slammed in and everyone is making a run for it. After the memories I saw the scars my body still has, so I know it wasn't some sick dream." Hasan nodded and she looked over. "What happened?"

He thought for a moment, recalling that the doctor told him not to overload her with information and to let her discover a few things on her own. "How about this, you go inside and get dressed, and we'll go head out for a bit."

Zara looked at him before slowly nodding, standing up and helping him up as well. "I'll be ready in ten." Then she turned around and started running for the house and Hasan sighed, running a hand through his hair. _This is going to be difficult._

XXXXXX

Zara felt the car pull to a stop on the messy and abandoned street. Her hair had dried a while ago and she was now in a pair of Capri's and simple light t-shirt as the bright sun cast down on everything in Destiny. Unbuckling the seat belt, she opened up the door and got out, leaving her hand on the frame as she took in her surroundings before turning to the house they were parked in front of.

It looked exactly like her memories, and then some. The only difference was a few more windows were broken and the roof had a hole in one corner of the house. Hasan had closed his door and was looking at her as she closed her own and walked around the car, standing next to him on the cracked pavement. "This is it." she said, a simple fact.

"Yeah, this is where Axel and I found you." He replied, then after a moment glanced down at her. "Do you want to go in?"

She nodded and they both started towards the door, which she could see the damage to it from to many forced entries. Raising her hand she simply gave it a small push, and it creaked inwards to reveal the darkness inside. She almost felt like she was stepping into the perfect horror movie setting when she placed her foot on the cracked wood flooring.

Hasan followed her in and stood next to the door, staying silent as she carefully looked over everything. She was surprised, the furniture even looked in the condition that it was after she had last been here. She paused, then slowly walked over to to the wall next to the hallway leading deeper into the house. Zara raised her hand and placed it on the severely beaten surface and saw the thick indent that had been made into it, almost as if something had fallen or crashed into it...

_Zara's breathing hitched as a hand and suddenly grabbed her, and she was shoved harshly backwards until her body met resistance and the wall caved into itself some, the girl choking back a scream as her head slammed into it and pain spread throughout her entire body._

She frowned and brought her hand away, instead opting to go to the right and walk into the small living room area where a large couch was as well as a former coffee table. The wood had collapsed and the glass scattered across the floor, crunching slightly as her shoes walked over it.

_Pure instinct resulted in her dodging to the left, letting the man run right past her while her leg stuck out, tripping his own feet and sending him crashing into the coffee table, the beers that were originally resting on it breaking as well as his intense weight left him sprawled on the floor with the glass underneath him and wood splintered around him._

"How long was I here?" She wondered aloud, looking at the broken window.

"Four, maybe five hours."

_Zara groaned as she slowly opened her eyes, her head pounding from where it had just been bashed into glass a few moments before, the broken shards surrounding her and some even flecked with blood._

"How did you guys find me?"

"Axel grew up in this kind of world, the one with the kidnappers, druggies, like that. He knew this was the type of neighborhood you would hang out if you just kidnapped some girl and wanted to do anything to her without anyone hearing." Hasan said, the disapproval of the actions in his voice.

Zara frowned and looked around, seeming to try to find something. Suddenly she was walking down the hallway, glancing on either side at the few door inside before she stopped at one on her left, her frown deepening as it seemed to be what she was looking for. She looked down at the ground and saw the dark stains on the floor, and if memory served her right, it would be dried up blood. Glancing over she saw Hasan looking at her with a worried expression, but with a reassuring smile she turned around and opened up the door, stepping inside the room.

Her stomach clenched at the room. The blood adorned the walls almost as if someone had taken bucket loads of it and just tossed it around. The room was empty save for the few rusted items scattered on the floor, also coated in the dried up crimson. The window had wood nailed over it, only small flashes of light coming through. Zara formed a fist with her hand, hoping that it would stop the shaking it had suddenly took on.

_The door was slammed open and Zara winced at the sound, still curled up in the far corner of the room. She had made the mistake of hoping they were done with her, but maybe that was to much to believe in. "Zara!" _

_Her eyes snapped open though she didn't move her body, and she saw her brother's familiar figure as well as Axel's flaming red hair behind him as they charged into the room towards her spot on the floor. "Oh no." Hasan breathed, dropping down on his knees next to her._

"_Z, can you hear us?" She gave a small nod and tried to push herself up, letting out a yelp as she put pressure on a broken wrist. _

_Suddenly Hasan had his hands underneath her and had lifted her up, carrying her bridal style as they both headed towards the door. "It's going to be ok. Don't worry sis, it'll be alright." She didn't even have the strength to nod as the darkness started to edge into her vision, and finally decided to just succumb to it with hopes that the pain and soreness would go away._

Zara gulped and turned around, walking out of the room and for the door. "Ok, I'm done." Hasan just nodded as she stepped past him, her sibling closing the door and heading down the walkway with her.

"What do you remember?"

"A lot of pain, a lot of shouting, then you and Axel before I blacked out. It's an improvement, before I didn't even know how I got out of the place." She climbed into the car and let her head fall back, a small sight escaping her. "One minute I have happy cheerful memories going through my head the next I see a dagger coming for me." She smirked some. "Someone from my point of view would think I'm living a double life."

Hasan grinned some. "Yeah, you used to always joke about that, except you would say one life and two different worlds." He glanced over. "Are you doing alright?"

"Yeah." She waved it off. "Just thinking." Then she glanced over at him. "Do you know of a place that would sell those really big pizza's that Sora and the others would enter in competitions to see who could eat them the fastest? I can't really remember the name."

Hasan started laughing. "Definitely, the first time they had a contest you were video taping it and posted it on the school website for everyone to cringe at."

"Think we can go there?" She asked. "Kinda want to see what's there that I can remember."

"No problem." He grinned some. "I know the shop owner will love to see you. Out of all your friends you were the one always making sure that the bill was taken care of, the guys tended to try to get free food off of him." Both of them were laughing now before he started up the car, and they were driving away from the unpleasant memories and towards the more familiar and safer ones that rested in her mind.


	12. After Effects Of The Attack

**I want a normal life  
****just like a new born child  
****I am a lover hater  
****I am an instigator  
****You are an oversight  
****Don't try to compromise  
****I'll learn to love to hate it  
****I'm not integrated**

Demyx pushed open the door to the large library and stepped inside, the summer heat immediately being replaced by the much cooler atmosphere. His hair was still damp from swimming at the local pool with the others, and after finding out Zara and Zexion had bailed because he was helping her get back into the swing of things at work. So he had opted to go and bring them some food afterwords so they could take a break.

The place was quiet, as always, and he sighed, quiet was never really his thing. As he made his way towards the second floor of the library, the bags of food grasped firmly in his hand. He waved at the workers at the cafe that recognized him from his many lunch trips before that he often brought his two friends.

When the sound of faint music reached his ears he paused in between one of the large rows of books, turning his head to see Zara there, quickly putting up books while the chord to her iPod was running down her back, her hair covering the earphones that were no doubt in her ears and blasting almost at full volume. Demyx grinned as he walked over, and Zara, who caught sight of movement, turned to face him while a smile broke over her face. "Hey Demyx." She said quietly, reaching up and removing her earphones, making the music louder.

"Heya Zara, you want some food?" He offered, holding up the bag.

"You have no idea, I'm starving." She laughed. "Give me a minute to finish putting these up, Zexion is somewhere in the back."

"Sounds good, I'll meet you in the corner we normally go to." He caught the look of confusion on his face and mentally hit himself. "It's on the third floor, a corner in the right."

She nodded. "Ok, I'll be there in a second." He let her get back to work and started towards the back rooms of the second floor, knowing now that's where Zexion would be. When he reached the large doors he pushed them open and was met with the sight of books that lined the shelves all there for various reasons either to be prepared or fixed up before moving back to the shelves in front. "Zexion?" He called.

Suddenly his blue haired friend was there. "Hello Demyx." He said politely.

"Hey, I brought food for you and Zara, thought you would like to take a break."

Zexion nodded in agreement and they started walking out into the second floor again. "I'm been working with Zara all day, we could both use one."

"Hey guys." Zara came to a stop in front of them. "I need to run down to the store down the street really quick, going to grab a soda and I need a new hard drive for school. Is that ok?"

"No problem. Can you get me a water while you're there?" Demyx inquired.

She smiled and nodded. "No problem. I'll be back in a few minutes." She wave them a quick wave before turning around and making her way towards the stairs, leaving the two staring after her.

"I wonder how much longer she's going to not remember." The blond said a little sadly.

"It wouldn't surprise me if she remembered soon. But we'll give her the time she needs."

XXXXXX

Zada walked out of the library and picked up a light jog, her iPod once again playing as her earphones were in place and started making her way to the store she had seen. During the day her break was going to be the only chance she got to run and grab that flash drive before she headed towards the movie theater, Hasan was going to take her to see the new Resident Evil movie that had come out that she had immediately taken an interest to.

A few people were there as she dodged around them on the sidewalk, a variety of ages as they were enjoying the warm and lazy day. Her mind was currently wondering, her mood far more happier than she had been in a while as she thought she was finally getting a grip on things. She didn't pay attention as she passed one of the breaks in between two different buildings, so when an arm shot out and grabbed her all she could do was gasp as she was suddenly pulled into the space and slammed against the wall, pain flaring up her back but at the moment her mind didn't focus on it.

He was a large man, in worn out clothes and disheveled hair while his grin was one that beyond freaked her out. His meaty hand gripped her upper arms firmly as he towered over her, and unconsciously she tried to shrink back more. "Didn't think I'd ever see you again." He laughed, and she mentally cringed.

"What do you want?" She asked, and she was surprised that her voice came out a lot steadier than what she was currently feeling.

"What the hell do you mean what do I want?" The sarcastic happiness was gone as he glared at her. "Don't play stupid with me, it's because of you a couple of my buddies were thrown into jail!"

She frowned. "What did I ever do to you?" She snapped, feeling her anger rise some. Wait, wasn't she just freaking out a moment ago?

"You little brat." He growled, and his other arm started rising up to no doubt slap her.

She didn't know what came over her, but suddenly her unpinned arm shot out, and with the hand enveloped in dark shadows she slammed it into his chest and she watched with slight amazement as he flew back, his body colliding with the wall opposite of her. But she noticed that surprise was smothered by a different feeling, one that felt so right, like she had absolute comfort by using the power against an enemy. What scared her was that she _enjoyed_ it.

Zara didn't let herself wait around any longer when she heard running footsteps approaching around the corner. She spun around and started running, suddenly finding her body bursting with energy as she quickly ran down the length of the buildings before reaching the opening and flying to the left, the only thought running in her mind was to get away as the shouting behind her quickly started to fade.

XXXXXX

Demyx immediately started freaking out when he saw the man slam into the cement wall, and it grew even more when he recognized him as one of the few men that weren't caught after Zara was rescued from her kidnapping. "Zara!" He tried to call out to her but she was already turning the corner and disappearing. Suddenly Zexion was there too.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"Call Axel and Hasan." Demyx said quickly to him before taking off on a run as well, his longer legs taking him quickly to the other end before he turned left and followed after his friend, his worry continuing to grow. "Zara wait!" Her form continued on though as she hit a split in the paths and started right, the path becoming less taken care of and knowing that it would end at the beach in about a mile or so.

And to his surprise she ran the entire thing, her feet soon starting to kick up the sand of the beach as she ran for the water. He didn't pause in his own running, though his lungs were burning and he felt relief flood through him as he was able to stop, almost running right past Zara who stood at the waters edge. "Z, are you-" He paused and stood in front of her. "Z..."

Her entire form was shaking, and she was staring at the water behind him. "Did I just-just..." She took a deep breath. "Kill him?"

"What?" He quickly rested his hands on her shoulders. "No Zada, you didn't kill him, he's just knocked out." He said comfortingly.

"But..." She bit her lip and shook her head. "What the hell did I just do?" She demanded, but he had a feeling that she wasn't talking to him.

He did the only thing he could and wrapped her in a tight hug, feeling her sob and her shoulders move with the action. _This is not good. _

XXXXXX

Axel ran right up to Zexion's form with Hasan beside him. "Hey bookworm! What's going-" They both stopped in their tracks at the unconscious man in front of them, the only sigh that he was alive was the weak movement of his chest, but what they were really staring at was the indent of the cement wall that he rested in front in. "What the hell happened?" He demanded.

Zexion looked at them before his eyes rested on Hasan. "He cornered your sister, she ended up using her power over darkness to defend herself."

"Where is she?" He asked worriedly.

"Demyx txted me a few minutes ago, she ended up at the beach."

"'Ended up?'" Axel echoed.

"After she defended herself she ran, Demyx had to run after her the entire time, she didn't stop till she hit the beach." He explained. "The police are on their way, I'll wait here, you go find your sister." Hasan quickly nodded before he was off again, Axel following quickly behind him as they didn't even consider the car.

It took another ten minutes, but they finally hit the beach edge just as the sun was starting to set over the calm waters, and in front of them Demyx was there, holding a still Zara as they sat on the sand. Hasan ran over and immediately knelt down in front of them, but was slightly surprised to see his sister's eyes closed. "She fell asleep about a minute ago." Demyx said quietly, his voice not its normal cheerful tone.

Hasan nodded and looked at Demyx. "Do you know how powerful the attack was?"

"Just enough to cause her to be exhausted after topping it with a mile run. I don't think she'll be to bad, just needs some rest." All of them knew that the first time Zara had used her powers to that extent, she hadn't been feeling the best afterwords. Any time she used it with to much power consequences happened when she didn't have full control over it, like now.

"Did that bastard hurt her?" Axel asked, his voice quiet but the anger still there.

Once again Demyx shook his head. "I checked, her arm might be a little sore but that's about it." Her brother felt relief overcome him as he nodded. "Let's take her home." He said quietly, standing up and watching as Demyx scooped her up under his arms and started carrying her.

"Should we tell the others?" Axel asked.

"Yeah, we'll tell them after we get her home." Hasan sighed, running a hand through his hair. "When Xemnas gave her the clear over her powers I didn't expect to have to go through this again."

"Trust me, we were right there with you." Axel groaned.

XXXXXX

Xemnas was surprised when he got the phone call immediately requesting his presence at the Alozza home he was immediately worried, because the only other time that happened was when Zara first discovered her powers, and it had turned into a very dangerous situation.

He was quickly led inside by a maid. "They're in her room sir." she said, and he nodded his thanks before quickly taking to the stairs and down the hallway to the room at the end. When he reached the door he knocked lightly before the door was thrown in, much to his surprise. "It happened again." Hasan said, and Xemnas compared him to the time he last saw him in this situation, unfortunately he looked just as worn.

"What situation was she put in?"

"One of the men from her kidnapping, he cornered her." Suddenly Axel was there, his face looking grim as they both stepped aside to let him in. Demyx was there to, sitting at her desk and looking worriedly at the still form of Zara as she laid on the bed.

Xemnas walked over and studied her closely, seeing she looked as worn as her brother. His hand suddenly became engulfed in shadows, just not as dark as Zara's had been when she attacked her kidnapper. Resting his hand on her forehead he closed his eyes for a moment, knowing the others were watching him but opting to ignore them for the minute.

A few minutes later his eyes opened again and the shadows slowly disappeared. "She'll be fine, however I'm surprised to see that her power is growing to the strength it was before the accident."

"What does that mean?" Demyx asked.

"It means she'll have the same amount of power and better control than she did after the accident. She's recovering nicely." This time he turned to her brother. "She'll just need rest, and food. When she wakes up make sure she eats something light but filling, it will help her recover faster. Also, her emotions are going to have a much heavier affect until she is herself again, so try and be cautious. From previous times it wouldn't surprise me if anger was the dominant emotion as before." He knew Hasan would follow his orders, he was the one that had helped her the first time this happened when his parents were away. It really could be a burden for someone to deal with a person suffering the affects of discovering, or for this case rediscovering, their powers to their full extent, but he knew that he would be able to do it.

"Do you think I should let her go to school tomorrow?"

"I would let her stay home and rest tomorrow, after that she should be well enough." He replied. "Give her a few more hours before her friends come here." All three of them looked at him and he chuckled. "Trust me, it will be much better for everyone, she is going to be very irritable the next few hours so you'll want to wait as long as possible."

"Got it." Axel smirked. "Won't be easy but I'm sure we can work something out."

"I'm sure you can." Xemnas agreed. "I will take my leave now, call if anything changes that would cause you to worry."

"We will sir, thank you." Hasan shook his hand before Xemnas turned and left the room, a sigh escaping him. _In the state she's in rediscovering her full potential was not what we needed._

XXXXXX

Though they had tried to give her more time, it was only about two hours later that the entire group was there, waiting in the hallway with Kairi having a face off with her brother. "What's wrong with her Axel." She demanded, arms crossed and feet planted on the ground. Axel inwardly sighed, one of the times he wished Zara hadn't taught his sister to be so stubborn.

"Z just needs some rest-"

"Axel..." Kairi said, the warning in her tone.

"She ended up using her powers to a more powerful extent than she's used to." He said bluntly.

Everyone fell silent, and he knew they understood what that meant. "Who did she use it on?" Riku inquired.

"One of the lowlifes that got away after we got her back from the kidnapping. He cornered her."

"Was she hurt?" Sora asked quickly.

Axel laughed some, but it wasn't that happy. "No, he didn't. Trust me, she took care of him before he had a chance."

"Why can't we see her?" Namine asked, not aware of the event that had taken place when this first happened.

"Well..." Kairi was cut off as the door suddenly slammed open and Axel spun around, surprise flickering through his eyes as his shirt was grabbed and he was pulled down so his face was a few scant inches away from Zara's. "What the hell happened?" She demanded, her features obviously not pleased with how she woke up, and he was pretty sure it was with a major headache and absolutely no recollection of what happened.

"You ended up using your powers to their fullest extent, your body wasn't used to it, you blacked out." He said quickly. She thought for a moment before nodding, letting his shirt go before putting her fingers to her head, a look of annoyance on her features.

"My head is pounding." She mumbled.

"Which means you need food and more rest."

"And you know this how?"

"It's not the first time this has happened." Kairi said, recalling how her friend was easily angered last time as well.

"I'm going to grab some food then." She didn't say anything else as she walked past everyone and down the stairs, quickly disappearing and leaving them all behind her.

"I wonder how long until she's fighting Hasan to get out of the house." Riku commented.

"Is she really that bad?" Roxas asked. To his surprise most of them laughed.

"Trust us, it's highly entertaining as long as you're out of the line of fire." Sora grinned. When the sudden crash came from downstairs followed by loud cursing there were a few more chuckles.

"Alright, who's going to sacrifice themselves?" Riku asked simply.

Kairi sighed. "I'll do it this time, but then one of you have to go up against her." Solid nods before she started for the stairs, already anticipating the next 24 hours were not going to be that fun.


	13. Party At The Club

**I'm comin' up so you better get this party started  
****I'm comin' up so you better get this party started.**

It was nearing six that Monday evening, and Zara found herself standing in her large closet and sifting through the pictures she had found weeks ago. The memories were clearer now, and she could easily place where many of them took place like she had actually been there. However, there was a difference from knowing what was happening to feeling like it was your life that was happening during the memory. It just still didn't feel...complete.

Zara tilted her head slightly when she saw a picture of herself as well as Demyx, both standing on a well lit stage and in outfits that were obviously fit for partying. Both held glasses up in the action of a toast with large grins on their faces, arms draped over each others shoulders as the camera caught the obviously energetic moment. She focused, but couldn't bring herself to remember what was happening, instead she turned over the picture and found the date, seeing it was only a couple months back. Putting the frozen time markers on the floor she picked up the journal and flipped through it until she found the date, and was pleased to see that it was documented.

**June 5 - Saturday**

**To say tonight went great would be an understatement. Everyone we invited was there, the club was overflowing with newcomers, and the grand opening was a complete success. Hasan was out keeping our parents at bay so I could do this, I'll have to remember to thank him later on. Demyx had been beyond nervous being the DJ, but after seeing people were liking him, (hell, who wouldn't?) he was way more relaxed and started enjoying himself as well. Kairi and Namine took care of taking orders out on the dance floor, Roxas dragged Axel to help him with the booths, so Sora and Riku took care of the bar. I was helping the owner oversee everything the first half, then things took a surprising turn.**

"_Zara! We've got a problem!" Kairi said, running up to her and causing her to turn around from the person she had been talking to._

"_What's wrong?"_

"_Demyx, he needs a few minutes to fix the mix he was using, the system crashed, right now it's a CD or something like that playing." Zara was immediately moving as she pushed through the crowd and went around the back, going up the small set of stairs before coming up next to Demyx in the DJ booth. "Think you got it?"_

"_I just need three minutes tops to finish the mix." He said quickly, "But I can't leave it on the CD, it's already played through most of the songs I threw on there."_

_Zara stood there thinking for a minute, the stage before them as they stood on the raise platform before it was cut off by the dance floor. She glanced down and saw the headset before an idea came to her. _Please don't let me regret this._ She thought, grabbing the headset with the built in mike and adjusting it. "Demyx, let me see the computer."_

XXXXXX

_The lights to the entire building dimmed and caused everyone to look to the stage when they lightly illuminated the platform. On it the outline of a figure was present and as Riku looked closer from his position behind the bar a grin came across her features. "This is going to be good."_

_Music started blaring and chorus was done over the speakers first_

I'm comin' up so you better get this party started  
I'm comin' up so you better get this party started

_Then the lights flared up and a new voice took over. Zara stood there, a smirk on her lips and looking like it was something every day as she stood in front of everyone on the dance floor, immediately falling into the personality of someone who owned the stage._

Get this party started on a Saturday night  
Everybody's waiting for me to arrive  
Sendin' out the message to all of my friends  
We'll be looking flashy in my Mercedes Banz

_Suddenly there was cheering, and lots of it. More voices started to join from the dance floor from the people who obviously recognized the song, and since it didn't look like anyone was protesting Zara kept it up._

Pumping up the volume, breaking down to the beat  
Cruisin' through the west side  
We'll be checkin' the scene  
Boulevard is freakin' as I'm coming up fast  
I'll be burnin' rubber, you'll be kissin' my ass  
Pull up to the bumper, get out of the car  
License plate says Stunner #1 Superstar

_More laughter, and the energy refused to die down. Riku glanced over and could see Kairi and Namine giggling as they stood and watched with the others, cheering along as the song progressed. Soon it was over, and Demyx took over again once the system was back up._

XXXXXX

_Zara took off the headset, taking deep breaths as the thrill and excitement still rushed through her. She couldn't tell if that was one of the more stupider things she had done or what. "Thanks a ton Z!" Demyx said thankfully as he handed her a water bottle. She took it and took a large drink._

"_No problem." She laughed, then suddenly Namine was there and handing them each a soda. "Here you go guys."_

_They took the glasses and as Namine stepped back Sora was there, raising a camera with a grin on his face. He didn't have to say anything as the draped their arms over each others shoulders and raised their glasses, music blaring around them and lights altering with the music, but smiles in place as the camera flashed._

Zara glanced again at the picture and smiled, the memory flying through her head and into the vault of ones she recalled. Suddenly she got up and started sifting through the clothes that lined the walls of the closet, wondering if there were any outfits like the one in the picture. When she hit one of the corners she paused, seeming to be in its own separate little area were three outfits hung neatly from the hanger. As she pulled one out the grin she wore widened and she couldn't help but laugh a little, excitement suddenly coming over her.

XXXXXX

Everyone stood in front of the dance club that was located in one of the more busy parts of Destiny Islands, inside the music still heard clearly as it blasted through the speakers. When Kairi had gotten the call asking if she could hang out with Zara for the night, and after being told where, she had immediately rounded up the group, who were all standing and awaiting the arrival of their friend, everyone obviously excited. It had been a while since they had been here, and she knew the owner would be pleased to see everyone again.

Suddenly the sound of a motorcycle reached their ears and they all turned to see the clean and sleek silver one pulling up into the parking lot, the figure taking off their helmet as they climbed off and turned to face them.

She was dressed in form fitting black pants that flared out a bit at the end, and the black boots probably gave her another inch in height. Her top was one of a white leather corset that laced up, underneath it the smokey black shirt that took over as a long sleeved shirt that had extra fabric on the arms, causing it to hang from her arms in an elegant but still fashionable way. Finally her hair, which was normally either up or down, was half of both. The top half of the white strands were pulled back by a clip and fell down with the rest that ran down the length of her back.

Zara couldn't help but grin at the looks on their faces. "How does this look?"

It was silent for a moment before Axel grinned. "Now that's something I remember." Everyone laughed as she walked up to join them.

"Sorry to spring this on you-"

"Trust us, it's not problem, we haven't been here in forever." Kairi said happily. "Now come on, I know the owner would love to see you again."

XXXXXX

Inside it was dark in some areas while the light illuminated the entire place, just enough so that way everyone could make out where they were going. Zara immediately felt relaxed, even in the somewhat cramped area, it looked like the fact it was Monday didn't hold many people back. The bar was off to the right, and that's where some headed while others went to go find a booth. Zara left them and started over to the stage, wondering if that's where she would find someone she recognized.

"Zara!" She was tackled from the left and almost taken down, but she managed to stay up as she looked to see Yuffie there. They had kept in contact the past few weeks, and Zara had quickly found herself getting used to her hyper attitude.

"Hey Yuffie." She greeted. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, most of the people from school decided to come after today's hellish time at school, most just to blow off steam." She said with a wave of her hand. "Cloud, Arieth, Leon, and Tifa are here too."

"Wow, that bad?"

"You have no idea." She turned to see Cloud there, smirking as he crossed his arms over his chest, the black dress shirt done up in a non-formal way and dressed in simple jeans. "Heard you didn't have an easy weekend."

"Sounds about right." She grinned. "Not easy, but productive." She paused when she felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around to see the man standing behind her. _No way._

He was dressed in slacks and a formal shirt similar to Cloud's, however his was white and with a formal jacket tossed on, but the simple things like leaving it open and the few top buttons undone gave the outfit a rougher look. However, what surprised her was the long hair, and it was pink. "Accident or not, you better remember me." He grinned.

"Marluxia?" She said, almost uncertainly but feeling like it fit.

"There you go." He winked. "It's been a while since I've seen you around here, was starting to worry you forgot all about us over here."

She laughed some, "After some of the things you've put me through? How could I?" She shook his outstretched hand. "It's nice to see you again."

"Likewise." He nodded. "So we've got the free-for-all division coming up, interested?" The free for all was when people were able to choose from a selection of artists and either sing the songs or do the dances in the video or ones of their own. It was incredibly popular and how many people were being recognized for their skill they possessed.

"I dunno, it has been a while..." She stalled.

"Nonsense, someone like you never looses that skill. Come." She was given no option as she was dragged off, hearing Yuffie giggle madly from behind her as they once again went around the back of the stage, took to the steps, and found themselves in the DJ booth where Demyx was conversing with the DJ on the shift.

When Demyx saw her he grinned before looking back at the other one. "Mind letting me take over for this intro?"

The man glanced back and saw Zara there before quickly agreeing and handing the control over to her blond Mohawk friend, apparently they had a reputation. "Let's do this!" Demyx said, his voice conveying his excitement as he started working the speakers.

XXXXXX

The music took a sudden turn and the lights flared to blend with it, causing everyone to look up at the stage as they centered around the person on it. Zara grinned as she adjusted the headset, hearing the speakers immediately take a turn in sound and a song she knew all-to-well come on. She started nodding her head with the beat, feeling herself suddenly taking on a personality that was similar to the one she remember from months ago. The cheering of the crowd before her gave her the hint that she knew how to do this from the reputation.

_Right, right, turn off the lights  
__We're gonna lose our minds tonight  
__What's the deal, yo?  
__I love when it's all to much  
__5am turn the radio up  
__Where's the rock 'n roll?_

More cheering, and everyone started picking up the lyrics with her as the dance floor burst into motion. Zara felt a sudden and new excitement fill her as she continued singing, walking over and dropping off the stage to suddenly be surrounded by everyone else on the dance floor, some giving her high fives as they sang with her.

_So raise your glass if you are wrong  
__In all the right ways, all my underdogs  
__We will never be, never be anything but loud  
__And nitty gritty, dirty little freaks  
__Won't you come on and come on and__  
Raise your glass!  
__Just come on and come on and  
__Raise your glass!_

She could see her friends blended into the crowd, and even Yuffie found herself next to her as everyone was jumping up and down with the beat, the energy almost contagious. Zara wore a grin on her face as Yuffie started to join her, having to contain her the music dropped and everyone went with it as the next line came on.

_So if you're too school for cool  
__And you're treated like a fool  
__(You're treated like a fool)  
__You can choose to let it go  
__We can always we can always, PARTY ON OUR OWN._

Everyone seemed to yell the last part and suddenly the music was pumping again. It was another couple minutes before the song ended, and Zara felt the exhilaration flood through her as she stood on the stage, clapping with everyone else as the song came to an end. She felt at peace for a moment, though that would be hard to imagine in this kind of situation, but she honestly felt like nothing had happened. She knew these people, they knew her, and she didn't fee like she had to mentally keep tabs on another persons life.

Still feeling content, she grinned and raised her arms. "So who's going to give it a go?" she asked into the microphone.

The cheering was deafening.


	14. Round Two

_Why haven't I updated? Simple. Life is a pain and refuses to give you a break the one time you ask for it. *sigh* Sorry, I'll try to work on the next set of chapters quickly since this story probably only has a few more left. Hope everyone is enjoying, and again, reviews are appreciated but not mandatory.  
-Shadoword_

**Ya, you wish the hard way  
****You'll have to learn the hard way  
****But it's like this, yo**

The jail yard was small, but large enough for the few inmates there that were throughout it on the bright sunny day on Destiny Islands. These were the few people who had it in them to ruin the tranquility that the Islands normally had, and made sure to drag down others with them.

At one of the tables two men sat, one that had attacked Zara earlier and the other an unknown one. His muscles and well toned body obviously showed he worked out, and multiple tattoos covered his figure while his messy and oily black hair sat on his head while a scar ran from his left ear all the way to his jaw. The rough jeans with an old and worn white t-shirt finished the look of someone who was ready to pull a knife on you. He listened as the one in front of him spoke.

"Little brat, knocked me out with that demonic magic she's got. Rumor had it she didn't remember a thing about it, apparently she got it back in time though." He growled, sinking into his seat.

"The others, are they still safe?" His deep and rough voice asked, the order for the information to be given clear.

"Yeah, right before I got here they updated that they were in the clear, lost the police for about two months now." He confirmed with a solid nod.

"Good. It's almost time and I refuse to have that girl slip through my grasps again." His tone showed the obvious contempt for the girl, which was understandable to his partner. She was the only one that had ever survived his torture tactics, and right on the verge of death she had been rescued instead of dying like the rest of them.

"When are you going to start it?"

"This week, we'll finish her off this week." A sadistic smile came over his features, making him even more fearful at the moment. "I already have the perfect techniques ready to be used on her."

XXXXXX

_Her breathing hitched as she was running, not entirely sure where to but knowing for a fact who she was running from. She could hear their footsteps behind her, pounding into the cement as their pursuit was pushing the ten minute mark, only now her breathing just starting to get harder as Zara refused to slow down, the adrenaline lending to this. Her sloppy ponytail slapped her back as she ran, her clothes just a simple pair of shorts and tight t-shirt since she was just coming back from the gym. Her fear spike a little more when she heard and almost felt the bullet as it left the chamber and flew just a few inches past her leg. This let her know something, they only wanted to wound her so they could take her hostage, not just kill her._

_This was no comfort at all._

_She gasped when another one missed her, this time closer as she made a harsh left into an alley, slamming into the wall from the sudden turn but ignoring it as she pushed off and started running again, the length of the alley being encased in a faint darkness as the moon was clear that night. She kept going, forcing herself not to think of consequences if she stopped. However she was forced to when three bodies appeared at the end of the alley, standing at the entrance and their posture obviously radiating that they weren't there to help. "No." She whispered, spinning around to the laughing that came from behind her._

"_Nice job boys." One of them said, walking up to her as she stood in between the two groups, her muscles tense and eyes wide as she attempted to think of something, __anything__ that would get her out. "Now let's get her back to the boss, he's been wanting to play with her." More laughing and Zara's breath hitched as they closed in on her._

_The girl's scream ripped through the quiet night air._

XXXXXX

Zara shot up straight in bed, breathing erratic and heart thumping loudly in her chest as her entire body tensed, sweat covering her while her sheets suffered the knuckle white grip she had on them. Her eyes scanned the darkness of her room, searching the shadows for any sign of the danger, for any of the men slowly stalking towards her with those grins on their faces that sent shivers racking her body again. Out of the entire thing, that was what she remembered the most, the sick smiles that showed their intentions out of everything else.

Next to her Skia was already sitting ramrod straight, nudging her shoulder with a small whine coming from her, obviously showing worry over her owners behavior. Taking deep breaths, Zara patted her head to let her know she was alright before she threw off the covers and got out of bed, once her bare feet hit the floor the cold sinking into them, something she appreciated.

Her gray sweats and simple wife beater the only thing she wore, she headed out of her room and down the hallway, her footsteps silent against the hardwood floor from years of walking the home slipping into her actions. Quickly descending the stairway her eyes already adjusted to the darkness and saw the place just as clearly and started towards the kitchen, Skia right behind her as she brought the lights up to a low dim and making her way to the fridge, knowing she was now hungry but not knowing what to make. Opening up the door she stared inside, the feeling now gnawing at her but everything she looked at not sounding so good. Suddenly there was another presence in the room, she noticed it because she felt their aurora enter the diameter she had her powers set on. Turning around she was surprised to see Hasan there, hiding a yawn behind his hand as he walked up to her. "What's wrong?"

"Hungry." She said simply. He studied her for a moment before nodding.

"Nightmare?" She frowned but nodded anyways. "Then go sit down, I'll make you something to drink."

"But-"

"Don't worry, whenever you have a nightmare you always make it, just something you developed after the first time you had them." He explained. Zara decided to just go along with it and sat down at one of the stools at the island, Skia sitting down next to her before lowering herself into a lying position, resting her head on her claws.

The kitchen was silent as he set about making it, and Zara noted the three simple ingredients. Milk, cinnamon, and honey. _Interesting._ She thought as he started warming up the milk. "So...how often would I have them?" She asked.

"The first month you said every night, we never knew about it because you were a pro at hiding it. As the months went on they slowly started to fade, before your accident the last month you only had it happen two or three times." He explained, throwing in a pinch of cinnamon into the mix in the pot in front of him.

"Ok, question two, why was I coming home from the gym so late at night?" Honestly she thought it was probably her own stupidity.

Hasan chuckled. "You always worked late there, you and Tifa would help each other out and sometimes had students that preferred personal sessions at night instead of during the morning. You really were a vampire at times. Worked all night, slept some during the day, your schedule was always switching."

"So, in short I was insane." She said with a nod, "Joy." The sarcasm was obvious.

"Yeah, everyone agreed you were, but it worked for you." He shrugged, pouring the contents into a glass. "It's just how you did things." He placed it in front of her. "Drink."

She took the glass, pleased that it warmed up her hands and took a drink, the contents sliding down her throat and immediately soothing her a bit. "This is good." She commented. "Thanks."

"No problem." Hasan looked at the clock and sighed when it showed it was three in the morning. "Alright, I'm going to head off to bed, don't do anything stupid." She smirked and nodded as he left the kitchen. Silence engulfed the area again as she continued to sip her drink, looking down at the dog who had his eyes on her. "So...does that mean you're more crazy than you're letting on?" A tilt of the head, eyes still staring at her. "Got it." She nodded, seeming to understand as she went back to her drink. _I was a psychopath before I lost my memory. That's just wonderful._

XXXXXX

Zexion frowned as he watched Zara, her head turned and looking out of the window next to her seat with a distant look in her eyes. Face wiped of any emotion, she just stared at nothing in particular while it would seem her mind was in a completely different world. Sitting in the seat behind her, he had been glancing away from the board and at her figure for the past five minutes or so while their English teacher continued on with her lesson, to focused on the lesson to notice one of her stupids behavior. He wouldn't be surprised if she had immediately done this straight from the beginning of the class, according to the others she'd been like this all day.

Suddenly their teachers speech stopped and he looked up from his notes to see her looking at Zara, no hint of annoyance but instead worry. That didn't surprise him, she was among one of the few students in the entire class that put all her effort into every class, so this behavior was far from normal. "Ms. Alozza." She asked after a moment. No reaction. "Ms. Alozza, is there a problem?" Still no reaction. Now really concerned, their teacher walked over and set a hand on her shoulder.

Zara's head whipped around and she got a clear view of the almost haunted look in her eyes. "Ms. Alozza, are you alright?" She asked quietly.

Zara slowly looked around the room, almost as if to survey it for the first time before standing up and grabbing her backpack, mumbling something to the teacher before she disappeared out the door. Their English teacher stood in place, almost shocked but not in an angered way. She looked over to Zexion. "Zexion, gather your stuff and please catch up with her, see if you can get a hold of her brother." He nodded and grabbed his things before heading out of the classroom as well, picking up a light jog as he headed in the direction of Zara's footsteps. When he rounded a corner he saw her going towards one of the buildings many exits, and caught up with her to stop her with a hand on her shoulder.

She paused and turned to look at him, that same lifeless look on her features as he studied her carefully. "Where are you going?" He asked quietly.

"Where it's wrong." She said, her voice dead as she replied with the blunt answer.

"And what's wrong?" He replied in an honest questioning tone.

"Feeling. The feeling is wrong." Now Zexion normally didn't get unnerved, but that look in her eyes was starting to get to him...

"How is the feeling wrong?"

"It feels like last time, when the bad things happened." The bad things... He thought for a moment before his visible eye widened.

"How about I go with you?" He asked simply. Zara's head tilted to the side before she nodded firmly and turned around, continuing to walk towards the exit with Zexion right next to her. _This can not be good._ He thought as he took out his cell phone.

XXXXXX

In her mind, it was almost as if everything had taken on a greyish hue, a mist falling over everything leaving her stranded in a darkness with nothing to look upon but the empty space around her. But that was alright, it wasn't so bad as she let her feet continue to take her through the haze, to unconsciously guide her through the nothingness. Because though that's what she saw, it wasn't what she felt.

This place was telling her the surrounding area through the emotions she felt raging within her. Where there was once just the simple existence and her being content with life, the emotions of still finding out her true self still working through her, the ones she was feeling now was nothing similar to that.

The one that first invaded her thoughts was fear, the paralyzing fear that was just enough to make her cautious, but not enough to keep her feet from walking, the fog clinging to her feet as she went. The next emotion to come into play was frustration, at what, she didn't know. All she knew was that it was there. The third and final thing she experienced was pain, excruciating and burning pain. What clicked in her hazy mind was that she felt it before. So that's why she was walking. She couldn't place the memory, couldn't place who had caused her to experience all of those, but all she knew is that it was wrong that it was back.

So that's where her feet led her now, to the place where the emotions were being housed up and to make sure that they were dealt with. She didn't know why, normally a person would run, however she felt that if she just ignored them people would get hurt. She didn't want that...right?


	15. Setting the Stage

**It's easier to run  
****Replacing this pain with something numb  
****It's so much easier to go  
****Than face all this pain here all alone**

"Zexion! What the hell is going on?" Axel demanded as him and Hasan ran up to them in the center of the street. Kairi, Sora, and were there as well with Demyx just ahead of them. The others were either still stuck at school or unable to make it and were on their way. The neighborhood they were in was pretty beat up and unkept, even as it neared three it held an almost dark look as they stood in the middle of the road, no sign of life within the next few miles around them. Hasan ran up to his sister and made her turn around to face him, almost flinching at the dead look in her eyes. "Zara, what's going on?" She didn't answer as she looked around, almost seeming to look for something specific.

Zexion answers Axel's question. "She just started saying she was going where the feeling was wrong." He replied, sighing slightly. "I have no idea."

"Here." They suddenly looked at her as she in turn looked at them with her head tilted slightly. "It's here, something really bad is going to happen." She said it so simply, like it was inevitable and all they would have to do is get it taken care of.

"What bad thing is going to happen Z?" Demyx asked, sounding worried.

She shrugged just as they heard laughter coming from behind her, and she turned, once again tilting her head before nodding to herself. "Yep, bad things are happening."

"What's wrong Zara? You didn't like our meeting last time?" Axel looked around carefully and saw the empty houses suddenly had people inside them and a circle was starting to form around them. _Dammit._ He thought, tapping Hasan on the shoulder who nodded to show he saw them to. Kairi stepped closer to her brother and Sora turned to face the people behind them with Zexion while Demyz stood on one side of Zara, who had her eyes closed and her features looking like she was confused.

"How did you get out of jail?" Hasan demanded as he stepped in front of them, and was horrified to see Scarface there, grinning viciously as he stood about fifteen feet away.

"Don't worry, I'm sure I'll be back there in a few days, however there were a few things I needed to take care of before that happened."

Demyx put a hand on Zara's shoulder and shook her slightly, hoping she'd snap out of her trance. Luck was on his side as her eyes snapped open and she quickly took in her surroundings, her eyes widening as he saw her mouth a few curses. She looked up at him and gave a small smile. "I'll be asking what happened later on."

He grinned and nodded. "That works." He said quietly as she set down her backpack and looked at Scarface, her face going blank. "I remember you." She said bluntly.

"That's good, it will make this more enjoyable." As they started advancing on them Zara held out her hand and they watched as a it was enveloped in shadows before they faded out and a dagger was in its place. "Take one step closer and see how quickly I spill your insides onto the cement." she growled, her protectiveness taking over.

Hasan knew his sister was strong, she could definitely beat him in a battle any time and even gave some of the top fighters a run for their money. But even though he knew this she was still his younger sister, and he couldn't help but feel his own protective side come over him. Thankfully he wasn't defenseless, Zara had made it a point that he participated in some of the basic fighting and self defense classes, so he would be able to contribute to the fight as well. He stepped up beside her and put a hand on her shoulder, not even looking at her as he addressed Scarface. "Don't expect us to back down so easily."

The man grinned once again. "It wouldn't be fun if you did."

XXXXXX

Axel wasn't entirely sure what happened, one minute everyone was settled in the tense atmosphere, the next they were locked in battle with the same thugs that had wrecked Zara's life just a few months ago. The first thing he seriously took in was that things had gotten considerably darker as a light fog fell across them, and he contributed this to Zara because he could see just fine, but it looked like their opponents had a hard time pinpointing them as they blindly threw attacks.

Glancing over, his hands instantly engulfed in flames, he saw Zara's long daggers cut clearly through the fog and a man go down, the blades coming away red. He briefly worried about her reaction, but saw her face a mask of pure anger, and instantly felt sorry for anyone who crossed her.

His head snapped back and Axel let the ball of fire fly from his hands and strike a man in the back who went for Kairi, hearing the satisfying cry of pain as he went down and saw Kairi back up with Sora, the male teenager studying his surroundings carefully while having a grip on Kairi's upper arm to guide her with him as she seemed uncertain of what to do. However, knowing that Sora wasn't stupid and would keep her out of to much trouble, Axel turned back and made his way over to Hasan and Zara's rough positions, feeling his own annoyance start to reach a dangerous level as he lashed out an another attacker.

XXXXXX

Kairi's head was spinning, only comprehending that Sora had a grip on her arm and was carefully leading her away from any large skirmishes of possible threats. Her head felt lighter and she felt herself become uncomfortable as the fog settled in around them. She knew this was Zara's powers coming into play, and even though she didn't have powers of her own, apparently she still had the attributes of a wielder of light within her, so this much darkness on such a level was affecting her. Sora however, was a mix of light and dark, so he was able to help her as he was clear headed and not having issues, even though he could tell how much power was within the darkness that surrounded them.

"Where's Zara?" She asked quietly.

"Fighting." Sora replied just as quietly as he took a few steps to the right, guiding her with her as a man charged past them, slicing through the fog before it fell into place again. He was surprised at how much this was working, then again Zara never put up with half attempts at anything. "You feeling alright?"

"Light-headed." She said carefully, feeling another tug on her arm. "How are the others?" She tried to look through the many bodies hidden in the fog, but even though they could see clearly while their enemies couldn't, the distance was still a problem.

"I don't know, but I just saw fire a few seconds ago so I'm going to take a guess and say Axel is giving them a piece of his mind." He replied, not being able to help the grin that came across his features. When his cellphone suddenly went off they both froze, and watched with dismay as a few of the thugs surrounding them spun quickly, facing their direction and advancing, using the music playing as a guide.

Sora ripped it out of his pocket and flipped it off, dragging Kairi back as he immediately cut off the music and spoke in hushed tones, watching as the small group that had formed shouted at each other and looked around. "Yeah?"

"It's Riku, where are you guys?"

"Where they took Zara when she was caught." He replied quietly, taking a few careful steps back.

"Why are you whispering."

"Because right now it's a war between everyone and Zara's got a spell over the place, they can't see us but have no problem hearing us." He mumbled, stumbling a bit as he walked backwards but regained his composure. "Better hurry up and bring reinforcements, this is not looking good."

A sudden scream ripped through the area and everyone froze, Sora's blood running cold when he realized it was Zara, and unconsciously thinking he had never heard her make any sound that sounded like pure pain.

XXXXXX

Zara couldn't help the scream that ripped through her throat as she felt the blade pierce through her arm, effectively entering from one side and protruding from the other. Her concentration split for a brief second and the fog surrounding the area lightened before disappearing completely, her daggers disappearing with it. "What's wrong? I thought you'd be used to it by now." The taunting voice suddenly appeared in front of her, and she blinked away the tears of pain to see Scarface standing in front of her, that malicious grin on his features. "Looks like we'll have to get you back into routine, eh Zara?"

She scowled, not noticing anything or anyone as she reached around and grabbed the hilt of the knife, thankful it was somewhat short as she took a deep breath and ripped it out of her arm, biting her lip and tasting the blood as it's blood stained blade fell harshly to the ground. "Take care of the others." He suddenly said, and realization dawned on her a little to late through her painfully clouded mind.

"No!" She yelled before she felt something grab her from behind and a cloth was placed harshly over her mouth and nose. She struggled, feeling the pain rip through her arm but ignoring it as she was forced to inhale from the material, her head instantly starting to spin. She could hear shouts, but couldn't discern them as he body started going slack, throwing her mind into darkness as her eyes slipped closed and thought that everything had only just begun.


	16. Let Chaos Ensue

**You can push me out the window  
****I'll just get back up  
****You can run over me with your 18 wheeler truck  
****And I won't give a f***  
****You can hang me like a slave  
****I'll go underground  
****You can run over me with your 18 wheeler but  
****You can't keep me down, down, down, down.**

A numbing feeling had taken over as her senses slowly came back to her, and this immediately informed her of how far they had gone while she was unconscious. When she was numb, this meant that they had indeed thrown a couple punches enough to cause the pain to start dulling into the unfeeling sensation. Growling a soft curse, she forced her eyes to crack open and squinted to let them adjust to the lighting before a sickening feeling came over her as she recognized the place.

It was the same room they would keep her locked up in, the blood on the walls and staining the carpet providing proof of this fact. After seeing the blood she immediately looked down at her arm and was pleased to see it had almost finished completely healing, apparently she had been out of it just enough for her powers to immediately start healing her. Sure, it hurt a bit, but it was easily ignored as she sat and took in the predicament as she looked at the chains that encircled her wrists and looped through the hook in the wall, scowling and giving a weak tug but doing nothing further as she looked around, seeing there was nothing else she could really do except sit there and wait until they decided to come in here and start the torment.

XXXXXX

Demyx winced as another furious shout left Axel's lips while Hasan himself was shouting threats to those on the outside of the room they were currently locked in. Kairi sat in a corner and watched silently as Hasan paced the room, Sora standing next to her. Demyx himself stood on the wall opposite of them as Axel continued his abuse of the door as his fists pounded into it. After Zara had been taken from them things had taken a turn for the worse, with their guards dropped with worry for their friend it had resulted in them being overpowered and shoved into one of the abandoned houses worn rooms. Apparently though the locks still held up well...

"Open up this f****in door so I can come out there and beat the living sh** out of you!" He shouted, his entire body and aurora itself just radiating his anger.

Hasan's, however, was more centered around worry as his eyes were glued to the ground as he paced back and forth, his entire form tense as the possibilities were racing through his mind. None of them sounded appealing however, and he couldn't help but visibly flinch as one idea, and unfortunately a reality Zara had suffered through, came to the front of his mind. Forcing himself to block it out he stopped as words his sister once said surfaced, and a grim smile came across his features.

"_Yeah, life can suck, yeah, it can be unfair, and it sure as hell can attack those who don't deserve it. But there's nothing you can do but take what it throws at you and keep fighting. Because the moment you stop, then it's pointless to keep living because you're not doing it on your terms, and that's what makes our lives worth pursuing, is doing what we want by our standards." A soft smile graced her lips as she sat in the hospital bed, just a few scant hours after they had rescued her. "That's why I'm not going to let this conquer me, or let it run me into a pit and refuse to let me out, because I still want to live that life, and I refuse to let it be taken away by something that has no right to." _

Hasan had remembered his question to her, how could she be so fine after what had just happened. And after hearing her answer he had never felt so proud of her, and after that he had made sure that before he let something overcome him, he would at least try to look at it from all views.

And that was what he was going to do now.

He took a deep breath and forced himself to ignore Axel's shouting as he cleared his head a bit, finding himself finding his body at least not as tense but the worry still there, just not as bad as it had been. Glancing over he gave a soft smile to Kairi and Sora, who returned it weakly before turning to Demyx, suddenly remembering Zexion wasn't with them and instead somewhere else. Apparently the gang wanted to ask him a few questions, probably because he had been the one here with Zara first. "How are you holding up?" He asked quietly.

"Worried about the two of them." Demyx sighed, letting his head fall back against the wall. "Think Zexy is alright?" Seeing the normally hyper blond this solemn definitely wasn't the brightest picture.

"Zexion will know how to handle the situation, it's those thugs that I don't believe in." Hasan replied honestly before setting a hand on Axel's shoulder. "You need to stop before you become a mute."

"I want out of this place so we can get those two and get out of here." He growled, reeling on Hasan, but his anger not directed towards his friend. His eyes cast over his younger sister, sitting there in the corner with a mix of emotions on her features and he felt himself tense up more. He was devastated when Zara had been taken, just as worried as Hasan as the pryo-lover considered her an adoptive sister. He would never admit it, but if it had to be her or Kairi, he was glad to know that Zara could at least cope with it. Kairi on the other hand...

He forced the thought out of his mind, refusing to even consider the consequences if Kairi was put through the hell Zara was, and his need to get out of there to get Kairi _and _Zara out of there so they could live normal lives, putting all of this behind them after he threw these bastards in jail or persecuted them himself.

Axel looked over Hasan and saw that even though the worry was still there, his friend was obviously forcing himself to not to overreact, and he was pretty sure he wasn't helping Hasan with that with his shouting through the door. When he turned to look at his friend the said door swung open and Zexion was pushed in before two of the men came up to Demyx. "Boss wants you." Before anyone could do anything they grabbed him and started dragging him out of the room, and the main reason Axel didn't charge them was because the glint of the blade was displayed clearly as it was held to the back of Demyx neck, leaving the blond with a worried look as the door closed behind him.

Forcing himself to take a deep breath he looked at his friend. "Any ideas?"

XXXXXX

She didn't have to wait long before he finally walked through the door, that stupid grin still in place as he approached her until he stopped just a few feet away, and she dully noted that she couldn't lunge at him to wipe that look off of his face.

That sucked.

Zara sat silently as she looked up at him, her hands lying simply in her lap as she sat Indian style and let her white hair fall some in front of her face as the two enemies stared at each other. Zara honestly didn't know what he had against her, in the beginning she had just been taken because of the amount of money her parents had. But as her time in captivity continued she could see his reasons changing, and it annoyed her to no end what they could possibly be.

"Enjoying your stay?" Scarface asked simply.

Zara's eyes narrowed and she responded with a question of her own. "Where are my friends?"

"I'll answer yours if you answer mine." He said simply, that smug look on his face again.

"I'm beyond pissed off because I'm being forced to endure hell. Happy? Now where are they?" She growled.

"They are simply in one of the other buildings, locked up for the time being. However that blue-haired friend of yours is being asked some questions-"

"Don't you dare!" She yelled, lunging at him but her anger rising when the chains stopped her from ripping him apart. "Don't even think about hurting him!"

"Relax." He said, waving his hand in a dismissing way. "He'll be fine as long as he cooperates. As for one of the others, they should be visiting us shortly." Immediately Zara turned suspicious, wondering what his reasons were.

"How soon?" She asked carefully, her tone sounding like if she said the wrong thing he would immediately inform her he was messing with her. This was the game they would play, one person would give one thing, the other would return with another piece of information or an offer, however after that it was a game of finding out what was truth and what was a complete lie.

"In about-" There was a solid knock on the door and he chuckled. "Now." The door swung open and Demyx came in, held firmly by two of the and Zara could see the faint scratches and a forming of a bruise on his jaw. She growled low before Scarface spoke again. "Ah ah ah Ms. Zara, we don't want any trouble." She once again saw the dagger as it was placed at Demyx's throat, the blond leaning back a bit to try to avoid it from even touching his skin. "Why is he here?" She demanded, forcing herself not to look at her friend.

Demyx, in turn, was forcing himself not to freak out, at least not on the outside. Mentally, he was loosing it, but he momentarily forgot about the dagger as he looked around the room, not being able to hold back a wince before his eyes landed on Zara. For a brief moment, he saw the Zara he knew, the one that would challenge anyone if they were doing something that would combat her morals or someone who threatened one of her friends or family. He saw the same girl that he had grown to know, and this thought was slightly comforting.

"He's here for reassurance." She scowled as he walked up to her, and a hand flew threw the air but she ducked before coming back up, her head slamming into his and forcing him to step back before regaining his balance. After hearing a sharp intake of breath Zara's head snapped over and she could see the faint red line of blood on Demyx's neck, his head as far as it it could go with the dagger still digging into him. "Dammit. Stop!" She shouted, her frustration at being able to do nothing showing through, and she looked apologetically at Demyx.

"Like I said, reassurance." The hand came at her again and she closed her eyes as she was slapped harshly, falling back against the wall with the stinging on her cheek forcing her to bite her lip to not say anything. One more glance at Demyx, and she saw the dagger was at least no longer on his neck, though still close by. _It's worth it._ She said to herself, repeating the chant she had going on as Scarface advanced on her again. _Damn. This is going to __suck._

_**XXXFour years AgoXXX**_

"Come on Zexion! Loosen up a bit." Zara laughed as she walked up to him as he sat on the park bench, his posture rigid as his eyes scanned over all the kids running around him.

"I'm fine thank you." He replied curtly. Honestly, he would have rather been at home reading that great book he had so rudely been pulled away from.

"No, you needed a break, and I'm giving it to you, but you're doing it all wrong."

"I was doing fine at home-"

"Yeah, as dark as it is in there I'm surprised you can even stand the sunlight." she laughed, sitting next to him as she opened up her backpack.

"This, coming from a girl who rarely even opens her blinds?"

"Touche." She grinned as she pulled out the salads she had packed. The bench rested under one of the large trees that was packed with leaves while it had an overview of the entire park. The day was sunny, as always, and quite comfortable as the two friends sat together. "You have to admit, this isn't that bad." Zara commented, glancing over at him.

He frowned but nodded stiffly. "It's fine."

"Say 'fine' one more time and I'm going to have to take that dictionary of yours and beat it into your skull." She said simply, pleased to hear she got a chuckle out of him. They ate in silence for a few minutes before Zara noticed a group of kids running over. "Zara! Want to play tag with us?" One asked happily, recognizing her from all her trips here and the times she had played with them.

She grinned and nodded. "Sure kiddo." They ran away and she got up setting her salad down.

"You're going to drag me to the park and then abandon me? Honestly Zara-"

"Please." She interrupted, waving it off. "Like I would do that." His eyes widened as she pulled out the book he had been reading at home and handed it to him. "Enjoy."

"But you never even went into my bedroom." He said, astounded that she could have snuck it out of there. Her grin told him she had implemented those thieving skills she had developed over the years. "Zara-"

"Enjoy the book." She said, turning around and running after the kids, shouts and sequels of laughter quickly following. Zexion shook his head, but a small smile was on his features as he opened up the book and started reading again. "Don't know how she does it." He murmured.

_**XXXTwo years AgoXXX**_

Shouts and cheers filled the room where the large indoor pool was, which was currently inhabited by the four swimmers who were racing against the clock as well as each other in the competition that was being held. Zara was one of those that was at the edge of the pool with the other trainers, who didn't seem to mind as she continued shouting her own encouragements. "Come on Demyx!" She yelled, though he probably couldn't even hear her as his head was underwater, his body moving quickly through the water and pushing his way farther into first place. She held the stopwatch in her hand and waited anxiously as he drew closer to the finish line. _Come on, almost there!_ As soon as his hand slammed into the wall she stopped the timer and looked at that, grinning happily as the cheers roared throughout the area but she payed them no mind, even ignoring the announcer over the speakers as Demyx swam over to her, a large but fidgety grin on his features. "What was my time?" He asked.

Zara grinned as she bent down while he rested his hands on the edge of the pool. "My friend, you've just accomplished the new record of three minutes and fifty seconds on the 400 meter freestyle." Demyx's eyes lit up and Zara didn't have time before he grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her in. She didn't even have to worry about resurfacing on her own as he brought her above the water to crush her in the hug. "I did it!" He said happily, and she chuckled as she floated next to him.

"You know they could disqualify you if they wanted to." She warned him, but his arms constricted around her tighter and she choked out a laugh.

"Don't care." He said cheerfully.

_**XXXYear and a half AgoXXX**_

"Zara I swear if you don't get out here right now I'm going to get Yuffie and we'll drag you out." Kairi yelled through the large door of her best friend's room, sighing as she looked at her watch. The party was in half an hour and if they didn't leave now they were going to be late.

"It's not my fault you gave me a five minute warning when you could have told me _two weeks ago_!" Her friend shot back before the door was flung open, revealing Zara in a pair of shorts and a black bathing suit top, her flat stomach exposed as it stopped a few inches above her waist as she came out in sandals and pulling on her black shades.

"KAIRI! ZARA!" Both girls winced as Yuffie's loud voice rang throughout the home.

"Well it just slipped." Kairi chirped, grabbing Zara's hand and dragging her towards the stairs. "Besides, you need the break, you've been holing yourself up your room all week."

"I was studying." She replied hotly, freeing her hand from Kairi's grip.

"Not good enough." Her friend sang as they came up to the entrance of the miniature mansion as Yuffie already stood there, in her own bathing suit like the other two were.

"About time!" She said, ducking to miss the punch Zara half-halfheartedly threw at her while giggling as she stepped back. "Now let's go! The others are going to be there in the next hour."

"I thought you said they were already there." Zara replied, glaring at Kairi.

"Well I kinda sorta maybe wanted to make you hurry up so we could beat everyone there." Kairi said innocently, her eyes wide as she leaned back on the heels of her feet.

"Kairi." Zara growled, and at Yuffie's giggle she snapped at both of them. The two girls burst into laughter as they jumped back from their pouncing friend and ran out the door, an irritated Zara following close behind and verbally voicing how they would die.

_**XXXSeven months AgoXXX**_

Zara's bare feet quickly made their way throughout her large home, memory serving her so she didn't even feel herself have to think about where she was going as her body moved on its own. Her breathing was a little more ragged and her eyes were darting around as she jumped slightly as she heard a sound, cursing herself as she reminded herself the winds were picking up outside and it had probably only been something hitting a window. It was nearing midnight, but she payed that no attention as she walked up to her brother's door and knocked quickly and shortly before letting her arms cross as she continued to look around, her uneasiness getting worse.

After repeating the knock twice and over the period of three minutes the door finally open to reveal her exhausted brother staring down at her, sleep clouding his eyes. "Zara?" He mumbled. She said nothing, as she looked around again, and for the first time the shadow's caused her to be more wary. Hasan must have picked up on this as he woke up more. "What's wrong?"

"Can we talk?" She asked quickly, and walked into his room and pleased to see his bright ceiling lights were on. Zara relaxed slightly, but didn't pull out of her tense movements completely.

"What's going on Zara?" He asked again, walking over to his sister to look her over, wondering if she had slipped with one of her knives again. She was notorious for doing so when a new move came to mind.

Zara took a deep breath to steady herself before she was speaking quickly. "Remember how I was telling you about that really bad feeling I kept getting the past couple of days? I talked to Professor Xemnas and he said based off a person's personality they could get an additional sense with their powers. He suggested that maybe it was from my personality of liking to be prepared that the feeling was bugging me and that maybe I should just be more cautious of what's going on but don't worry to much. But now I'm really freaking out because it's getting _stronger_." She stressed the word, hoping it conveyed how much it was bugging her. She was losing sleep over this because she couldn't get herself to just let it go.

Hasan frowned. "Do you have any idea what this feeling is hinting at? Maybe the emotions within it can give you an idea?" His frown deepened when her gaze fell to the floor and her crossed arms seemed to fold into themselves more. Since when did Zara get quiet?

"There's a lot of pain, fear, and an overwhelming sorrow..." She trailed off as her eyes slowly rose to meet his, her voice so low he actually had to strain to hear. "The kind you can only experience when something or someone is taken away from you."

_**XXXSeven months AgoXXX**_

Laughter filled the car as it drove down the street, the three occupants enjoying themselves and the time they had together. Zara's dad was driving as he listened to his wife and daughter, who had opted for the backseat, enjoy talking together after getting back from the much longer than planned business meeting. He planned on treating them to dinner so they could continue their time together while his son was finishing some school related business, so Zara was the one that picked them up from the airport.

"I was able to help the theater department, they're doing an upcoming play that needed some music and a stereo system hooked up so most of today was spent doing that." Zara was explaining, twisted in her seat to face her mother while they pulled up to a red light, a soft smile on her lips. Her father smiled as he looked at her from the rear view mirror, having missed that feature on his daughter for a while now.

"That's so good to hear honey." Her mother said, pleased to hear her daughter still insisted on helping others when they needed it, it was a feature that she was always proud of that Zara had.

Her father got ready to begin moving again when blaring horns reached their ears, and all he could do was turn his head before nothing else was comprehended.

Things seemed to pick up speed from there. The left side of the car was crushed in and pushed harshly into the wall on their right, and Zara felt the pain of the car side caving in on her while the vehicle was jerked harshly. She didn't even cry out as she felt the pain stronger in her head, only whimper slightly as her tightly shut eyes cracked open slightly, the darkened streets not illuminating anything, but all she could make was the crushed left side of the car. Vision already foggy, she could only make out the faint outline of the two figures opposite of her and the sound of sirens reaching her ears. "Mom? Dad?" she asked weakly, wincing at the pain before it fully overcame her, not feeling the tears trail down her cheeks as she let the darkness relieve her of the painful event that had taken place.

_**XXXPresent DayXXX**_

Demyx stared at his friend's lifeless body that currently lay on the ground, and he felt his fear reaching an all new high. "Zara?" He asked, panic in his voice when she didn't respond. Scarface took a step back, pleased with his bloody and battering work as he turned to Demyx. "Don't bother, she's unconscious but when she wakes up we'll let you see round two." He harshly laughed.

"No!" Demyx's eyes widened at the thought of his friend having to go through that again. "What did she ever do to you?"

He watched as the man's features dropped from a craze high to a crazed obsession type of look. "She's the first one to get away from me not in a body bag. Can't be breaking tradition now, can we?"

Neither noticed the shadow's that had been enveloping Zara's form, only faintly licking at it as they surrounded her. Demyx's body guards were on either side of their boss, facing him and away from her, but the blond was able to slightly see around them. He forced himself not to show anything though his nerves were getting the best of him.

The shadows suddenly covered her entirely and a sphere shot up, from the roof to the ground and Zara's body no longer in sight but blocked from view. He gulped as the black didn't fade, but stayed in place for a minute, now completely ignoring the crazy men in front of him and focused solely on her.

Scarface couldn't believe that the blond would actually ask such a question, it wasn't like it was going to change anything. However when he saw the blond no longer pay attention to him his interest was peaked, wasn't he just trying to argue for his friend's life a second ago?

A sudden chill filled the room and he froze, the unfamiliar wrapping around him and the two besides him while the brat in front of him stiffened as well. The feeling only continued to grow before he could almost sense the presence behind him. The air caressed his ear and this time a shiver did overcome him as he heard the grin in the voice. "Boo."


	17. Pay Back

**The document uploader thing is screwing with everything and making it a pain to upload this, therefore, that is the reason everything is in italics, because it refused to let me convert a half of the story it screwed up back to normal print. So sorry about that, there are going to be some thoughts from the characters that if you watch for them you can pick out. Anyways, Happy New Years everybody.  
-Shadoword**

**Never give in  
****Never back down  
****Never give in  
****Never back down  
****When your life feels lost,  
****(Fight against all odds!)  
****Never give in  
****(Never back down!)**

_Zara grinned as she approached the guards from behind, her feet not making any sound against the pavement. As her bare skin hit the ground the once sturdy composition would slowly deteriorate on impact. In her hands her two favorite daggers in this form were clenched tightly as the blood started pumping through her veins, and with it the excitement that came before the kill. Oh, these guys were going to pay. With the memories still fresh in her mind, and now no doubt engraved there permanently, all she could feel was the need to repay them for all the crap they put her through._

_The dagger came up and cut through the air, the crimson liquid following after it while his partner attempted to spin around, but not before another blade pierced through his throat. "Two down." She whispered, the grin still in place as she shook off her daggers, tilting her head slightly. She let the wonderful feeling of the darkness within her flow out in her control, eyes closed as she felt more than watched as the change in atmosphere took place. When she opened them again the light fog had taken over the entire neighborhood, and she could here the shouts of worry take over throughout the area._

_Oh yeah, this was going to be fun._

_XXXXXX_

_Axel seriously didn't know what exactly was happening, just all of a sudden their captors were bursting into the room and dragging them out, held at gunpoint, and towards the exit of the place. It didn't surprise him that it happened, what was intriguing was the fact that they were completely freaked out at the moment and quickly speaking to each other in low tones, even though they could hear them perfectly._

_"But boss didn't give orders-"_

_"Dude! The boss is most likely dead!" One hissed, a bruising hold on Kairi as he shoved her forward. Axel resisted the urge to knock him out right then and there, but instead he was shoved out the front door of the house, and before he had more time to dwell on it he was looking on in shock at what had happened to the place, not just the house they stood in front of, but the __entire neighborhood. It looked like a scene straight out from Silent Hill, a light fog had fallen over the area that effectively blocked out the sun, leaving them in a shadowed surrounding as the light wisps coated the ground and silently floated through the air. He could see his surroundings, so that meant the broken houses that had originally been run down were clearly seen as more chaos had been wrecked upon them. One was just completely the frame as he could see inside through the entire structure while the covering had been blown around the yard, laying scattered and abandoned. ____What the hell happened here__. He wondered as they were led forward on a now nearly destroyed sidewalk._

_Axel glanced over at Zexion, who had a small frown on his features as he surveyed the damage. "I hope Demyx is alright." He said quietly, earning a nod from both Axel and Hasan. Kairi fell silent, feeling sick as the darkness completely overwhelmed her, knowing that Zara had something to do with this. Sora also had the same thought, but he briefly remembered talking with Riku about this type of scenario for someone wielding that much power, and knew that something must have happened to push Zara over the edge._

_There were seven of the thugs surrounding them, each with a gun and obviously not planning on letting them go any time soon. This would have worried Sora if it wasn't for the fact they were clearly freaking out. "Where is she!" One said in a low urgent tone._

_"Where's who?" Hasan asked, ignoring the fact they could kill him at any moment. Apparently they were to freaked out to keep anything from him._

_"You're sister went completely insane! If it wasn't for her we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place." One growled, looking around anxiously. "Wouldn't surprise me if the boss was already dead since he was with her when all this began."_

_Hasan's head snapped over in Axel's direction, who's eyes conveyed his worry. "Something must have happened." He said quietly, not noticing the fog getting thicker than normal as they walked on._

_One of the thugs mumbled something about the exit being nearby, but before he had time to get any farther all of them were forced to stop as their vision of everything was obscured, the fog weaving in through them and thickening to where they could barely see their own hand in front of their face. Sora instinctively grabbed Kairi and kept a firm grip on her trembling form. "Hang in their Kai." He said quietly._

_"I will." She whispered, looking around desperately. ____Please Zara, be careful__. She knew her friend could be pushing her limits with this amount of power, and that worried her as much as it did when she had first discovered them._

XXXXXX

_The sound of laughter echoed around them, and Axel's eyes darted around to try to find the source as one of their captors was stupid enough to speak. "Where are you!" He demanded, spinning around in his confinement and obviously panicking and ready to shoot the first thing that moved._

_The only thing the rest of them heard was his ear-splitting scream before the sound of something falling harshly to the ground reached their ears, then everything was silent again. Axel saw the faint break in the fog to see his gun now lying abandoned on the cement, with nothing left to be seen of its owner except the light speckles of blood. ____Sh**! Not good!__ "Thirty three."_

_Zexion stayed still as his eyes cast over the fog, trying to place the incredibly happy voice that had spoken the number, even though he had an idea who it was. ____Dangit, what was it they said about to much power being released?__ He wracked his head for the information before it came to him. Zara and Riku said that if you released to much power some of your own personality can be compromised. "Zara?" He voiced slowly, his tone coming out uncertain._

_Another scream as the guard next to him no doubt disappeared, though he didn't see a thing except maybe the wisps moving slightly to fill in the space he had occupied seconds ago. "Thirty four." Another laugh, and Zexion had to suppress a shiver._

_"Zara, is that you?" When his eyesight was suddenly cleared as the fog moved out of the way and a figure stood in front of him, he actually did jump from surprise before his eyes comprehended who was in front of him._

_Her long white hair was french braided and brought around to drape across her shoulder, which lay bare as the strapless gray top hugged her for and stopped just above her navel, exposing some of her stomach. The long black skirt synced at her waist before flowing out around her and a few inches above her feet where he found she walked barefooted. He noticed the scars that were normally on her exposed skin were gone, and the blue eyes that were normally so sharp had more of a cloudy look to them as she smiled at him. However the final thing he really noticed were the two daggers that were slid through a belt she had there to hold them in place, the blades still coated in a crimson he couldn't deny would be blood. "Hello Zemyx." She greeted, smile still in place as the fog seemed to keep its distance from her._

_"Hello Zara." He said carefully, noticing the sudden silence from the others. They couldn't see them but he was sure they could hear the conversation. "Is everything ok?"_

_"Of course." She replied, tilting her head to the side to study him. "Are you hurt?" It sounded like an innocent question, but he could see a sudden flash in her eyes that he couldn't place before it was gone._

_"I'm fine, as are the others."_

_"See! We didn't hurt them!" Someone screamed, and Zexion didn't even have time to blink before she was gone and the sound of a gurgling reached their ears before a heavy object hit the street. He pushed the sickening image out of his mind and called out. "Zara, will you please stop?"_

_"But why." He could hear the childish whine in her voice. "I don't like these guys." He tried to pinpoint her echoing voice but was failing as he heard her daggers cut through the air and another guard was taken down. "Thirty six."_

_"I know you don't Zara." Hasan said carefully, searching for his sister. "However this isn't the way we're supposed to punish them, we will let the others deal with it."_

_"But they were mean to me." He cringed at the still childish voice. "They hurt me and threatened Demyx. I didn't like it the first time either." Hasan froze._

_"First time?"_

_"Yep." Hasan stepped back as suddenly his sister was there, smiling in an innocent way though her appearance conveyed differently as the blood dripped off her daggers. "The time when they took me when I was coming back from the gym to help Tifa." She said simply._

_"You remember that?"_

_She nodded. "Along with all the other things I didn't remember, I remember." She said happily, before the fog engulfed her form again and Hasan was once again alone. His breathing got quicker. She remembered? As in she got her memory back?_

_A stifled scream followed by two more and he knew that the rest of their guards were dead, but he was even more surprised when the fog lightened up some, and he could see their group again as its density let up some to what it was when they first came out of the house. "Zara?" Hasan called._

_They heard a gasp and everyone spun around to see Kairi, holding onto Sora as Zara stood in front of them, though he distractedly noticed that her daggers were nowhere in sight. "You alright?"_

_XXXXXX_

_Kairi couldn't help the gasp that had escaped her when Zara was suddenly in front of her, standing in a non-threatening way as she noticed the slight concern on her features conveyed by the small frown. "You alright?"_

_"Y-yeah." Kairi gave a small smile, though she was still wasn't feeling completely alright. "Are you ok?" She asked._

_The soft smile that came over Zara's features wasn't the one of the girl she had seen in front of her, but of the real Zara she knew. "Yeah, I'm fine." Suddenly Zara reached up and placed the tips of her index and middle finger on Kairi's forehead, and the redhead's eyes widened when she saw her friend's mouth quickly form the words before the darkness flowed from her. She felt Sora tense before she held him in place, letting her eyes close and take a deep breath._

_When she opened them again she felt much more better than she had the past few hours of being in a place with so much darkness. Glancing around she saw she was still surrounded by the fog, which meant Zara still had that spell up. ____But I feel so much better.__ She looked around questioningly before something hit her._

_"Where's Zara?"_

_XXXXXX_

_Riku growled low in his throat as he turned down yet another street, mentally reciting the directions in his head. It had been an hour and a half since he had last spoken with Sora, and he was only just now able to start heading over with Namine and Roxas in tow, who had insisted on coming. His backpack thumping harshly on his back he continued his fast run, absently noting that the other two weren't complaining as they kept up, or tried to at least._

___He made another turn, knowing they were just about there when he slowed down to a stop, eyes widening as he gazed at the sight before him, or lack-there-of. Instead of the normally cruddy neighborhood a fog had settled around it, creating the appearance of the place being engulfed in a fog-filled dome as it cut the area off from the rest of the world. He felt his worry grow when he took a minute to confirm that there was a lot more powerful than any person should be putting into it, at least, any person Zara's age. ____What happened to get this sort of reaction?__ He thought before remembering there were two others with him. Turning back to Namine and Roxas, who had looks of worry and disbelief on their features, he spoke quickly. "I need you two to get over to Zara's house. Namine, get into her closet and grab one of her thicket and warmest coats you see, preferably a long one. Roxas, get into their garage and I want you and Namine to each drive a car here, we're going to need them heading back. Also, grab some food from their fridge, preferably an apple or something along those lines that she can eat easily. Get back here and wait for us. __**Do not go in.**__" He emphasized this fact clearly. "Got it?"_

___Roxas nodded firmly. "Got it. Good luck."_

_"__Please be careful." Namine said, before the two turned around and started running back from the direction they had come from. Riku sighed and turned back to intimidating wall in front of him, letting his backpack drop to the ground as he took a deep breath. ____Those guys are screwed. __With that final thought he stepped through, immediately feeling the change in the atmosphere and honestly afraid of what he was going to find on the other side. _

_XXXXXX_

___Zara hummed lightly to herself as she walked on top of the crumbling roof, the shadow magic being transferred to her feet mostly as it flowed throughout her body so they were light as she traveled. Her mood was pleased with herself, she had finished off all of the gang members and left only one more to go. Scarface was currently locked up in one of the basements she had found herself the last time they had dragged her to this neighborhood, so she found it fitting since apparently that's where he wanted to finish her off as well. _

___She paused for a minute before dropping down through the roof of another home and landing lithely on her feet in a crouched position, tilting her head to listen for a second. "Demyx?" She asked simply._

___The blond came into view at the door frame, and she was pleased to see he looked a lot better than what he did before. She had remembered when she had regained consciousness how he wasn't the most calmest of people. "Are you OK now?"_

___He gave her a nervous grin, fidgeting slightly in a familiar manner. "I'm better. Did you find the others?"_

___Zara nodded. "Yep, you can go out now, it's clear. I just have one more thing to take care of." A frown came over her friend's features and she tilted her head. "Is something wrong?"_

_"__Please Zara, don't do this." He asked quietly. "When you snap out of, well, whatever you're in now, you're not going to like what you remember." She could hear the earnestness in his voice as he said the world, along with the slight tinge of sorrow._

___Zara walked over and smiled at him before rising up on her toes to wrap her arms around his shoulders in a comforting hug, feeling him immediately relax and return it. Afterwords she leaned back and smiled again. "I'll meet you outside the neighborhood." And with that Demyx watched as the shadow's engulfed his friend and when they were gone, so was she, leaving only him in the room. _

___He gave a dejected sigh. "Please, ____please__, make the right decision."_


	18. Decision Points

**Once again italics because the document uploader doesn't like me. Sorry about that. Final chapter, followed by the epilogue, then playlist. Thanks for reading and Happy New Year.  
-Shadoword  
Note to Ventus4Ever: Thanks for the review and thanks for the feedback, it's nice to know my writing isn't as bad as I thought it was for this story, so I appreciate the positive change. =)  
****  
****It doesn't really seem  
****I'm getting through to you  
****Though I see you weeping so sweetly  
****I think that you might  
****have to take another taste  
****_a little bit of hell this time_**

___Riku kept up a steady jog as he ran throughout the area, pleased to actually be able to see where he was going even though any finer details would be missed. But really he was only looking for a group of people, at least he could see outlines of figures. Then again, if they weren't his friends and the bad guys were instead roaming about...He made a mental note to be on alert. With all the darkness being channeled into the spell he actually felt more energy than what he would have in a light induced environment or normal atmosphere, wielding the power of darkness gave the added benefit that he could work with Zara just as well as she could work with him. _

_"__Sora! Kairi! Hey, any of you guys out here?" He called, eyes scanning anything he could see within his range. _

_"__Riku?" He immediately altered direction to one of the houses that seemed to be the most durable he had yet to see, though it was still pretty worn out. _

_"__Guys." He came up to the door which immediately opened up to reveal Hasan and Axel there, with the others standing behind them. "Everyone alright?" Nods. "Zara?"_

_"__Out there somewhere, she got us free from any guards before bailing." Sora explained. "Demyx is somewhere else, but from the way Zara made it sound the place is almost deserted so he should be somewhat safe." _

___He nodded and glanced over at Kairi, immediately wondering how she would be holding up. He was surprised to see she looked fine, even more surprised to see the faint dark aurora around her. "Kairi, who cast the protection spell on you?" He asked._

___Her gaze turned confusing. "Protection spell?" Then it clicked. "That must have been what Zara cast. Before she left she put up a spell and I felt better, like the darkness didn't affect me." _

___Riku nodded, then smiled some. "Then it looks like she does have a grip on herself." At their looks he explained. "If you immerse yourself within to much darkness then it's easier to loose focus on who you really are, and your morals disappear right along with it. I thought that with all the power she's using that she would be to far gone, obviously that ain't the case because she thought of your well-being."_

_"__That's good then." Zexion commented. _

_"__So how does she turn back to normal? The non-killing-with-glee kind." Axel clarified._

___Riku sighed and shook his head. "It's her choice." He replied._

___Hasan finally spoke up. "She has to decided if she's going to let everything go or not." _

_"__I'm not sure if that's going to be so easy." Everyone jumped and spun around, relief flooding through them as Demyx stood before them, looking a lot more tired than what he started off as. "She said there's one more thing she has to do before she leaves, told me to get out of here and she'd meet up with us later." Axel put a hand on the blond's shoulder and nodded._

_"__I'm sure either way she'll come around."_

_"__But she ____killed__ people." Demyx said, sounding distressed. "What's going to happen to her when she remembers that?" _

___Hasan closed his eyes, trying not to think of it but failing miserably. "I don't know." He replied, shaking his head. "All we can do is pray that she can cope with it." _

_XXXXXX_

___Zara stood in front of the door that would lead her into the basement, staring numbly at it as she stood. Before she could change her mind on even walking through it she opened it up and went inside, staring at the figure that laid in a crumpled heap on the floor. "What do you want brat?" Scarface hissed, obviously not pleased with the situation. _

___The teenager just tilted her head and observed him from her view point. "Why couldn't you just let it go?" She asked. _

___Obviously this was not what he was expecting. "What?"_

_"__Why couldn't you just ruin my life once instead of coming back for a second time? Not only would you not be in this situation, but your entire gang would still be alive."_

___His eyes widened. "You killed them?" Then he scoffed. "Impossible." _

___She sighed and shook her head. "You really are thick-headed." _

_"__Why should I believe that a puny girl like you?" _

_____Ok, now this is ridiculous. __"Listen, I'm going to offer you a deal." At this he immediately shut up. Ah, so he wasn't as stupid as she thought. _

___"____Please Zara, don't do this." He asked quietly. "When you snap out of, well, whatever you're in now, you're not going to like what you remember." _

___She knew that she hadn't made a good choice when she killed everyone, letting herself get carried away with the sudden amount of power. But the option of just being able to fight back, one that she didn't have before, was just to good to pass up, and that laps in judgment had caused her._

_However there was nothing she could do about it, except not make the same mistake twice and start correcting it immediately. _

_"__If you just shut up and don't do anything stupid, I'll let the authorities take you without any beating from me."_

___He grunted. "Is there a second option?"_

_"__I beat the crap out of you then hand your worthless body over to the authorities."_

_"__Doesn't sound like a very appealing deal."_

_"__Well in your situation they normally don't." She hid a frown as she felt herself slowly getting tired. ____I need to hurry this up.__ "What's your choice?"_

___He looked her over before smirking. "You know, I thought you would have learned by now."_

___Zara gasped at the sudden pain that filled her shoulder, feeling the metal harshly dig into it and a warm liquid start to drip down her skin and soak into her shirt. She glanced over and saw one of the cronies she had thought was barely left alive, planning on let him bleed it out. Apparently that didn't work out as well as she thought it would._

___Already feeling herself drain, she forced herself to not start slacking now. ____I've got to finish this._

_XXXXXX_

___Hasan stood at the edge of the fog, staring blankly into it while he waited. He guessed he was being patient, but that was probably because of the numb feeling that had spread over him. With him was Kairi and Axel, who were on either side of him, while the others had been taken back to the mansion. Surprisingly Skia was there as well, the loyal dog having just followed the cars the entire way there. Now the canine stood on the edge, ears perked up and siting ramrod straight while awaiting its owner. _

___Kairi held the jacket and a small bag of fruit along with other finger foods, while Axel just stood beside Hasan to lend his silent support. His sister refused to leave, insisting and staying to help Zara as soon as she came around. They had been this way for a solid ten minutes now, having spent another half hour just getting out of the confinement in the first place. The silence was slightly unnerving, but no one felt like breaking it. _

___Skia's sudden barking startled them all, breaking them out of their own thoughts before the dog was up and running through the barrier. "Skia!" Hasan called, but it was no use, once the dog was onto something there was no getting her off. _

_"__Should we follow her?" Kairi asked, worry in her tone._

___Hasan thought for a moment before shaking his head. "We give her five more minutes then Axel and I go in. I really want to let her do her own thing, but if she did pass out from exhaustion like Riku said was possible then I don't want to wait any longer than we have to."_

___Axel looked over and nodded. "Alright, that sounds reasonable." But as soon as he finished the sentence Kairi spoke. _

_"__Guys! The fog is thinning!" Both of them looked back and sure enough, it was getting steadily easier to see the neighborhood once again. _

_"__Looks like we'll see how Z held up." _

_XXXXXX_

___Zara growled a curse as she looked at the endless blackness around her. "Alright, not what I had in mind when trying to get A GRIP OF MYSELF!" She finished in a yell, her frustration getting the best of her at the moment. "Ok, so maybe going overboard with the darkness wasn't the best idea." She mumbled, a frown still on her lips. Her shoulder, in this mental state, was damage free and she was currently in the clothes she had worn to school that same day. Now she found herself in the situation where she had to reel in all the darkness she had been using, because if she kept up the flow for any longer then she was going to be in a position that she might not be able to live through. _

___Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and forced herself to relax, feeling the energy around her keeping a powerful and steady rein over the place. Trying to focus, she needed to get a grip on that power, which at the moment was a lot harder than she originally thought considering the fact she had to go from immersed in it to containing it. It was like making a drug addict cut off all contact with drugs immediately, close to impossible._

_____But not entirely.__ She thought, taking the time to piece by piece stop her flow of energy, slowly retracting the darkness. ____Unlike others, I have the motivation to do so.__ She had made a promise to herself that should she ever make the mistake of loosing herself, she would definitely make sure she could get back, because if anything, it would give her a chance to apologize to anyone that lapse of concentration affected._

___She could feel the exhaustion mentally start to lighten up, since she wasn't automatically using a focused energy source continuously and was instead bottling it up for later. She didn't know how long she stood like that, completely engulfed in the blackness with the only thing letting her know if it was working being the atmosphere itself as she judged her progress by that._

___Slowly she brought herself back around, and the first thing that hit her was the pain in her shoulder. Wincing, she opened her eyes and blinked a few times at the sight in front of her. Scarface was on the ground, a bloody pulp but still breathing, and another person she didn't know had his throat slit, although she couldn't find a dagger anywhere. Trying to force away the fact that she was the one that gave the beating and completed the kill, she looked outside to see the fog lightening up. ____It worked.__ A small smile crossed her features before it disappeared, and a sigh escaped her as she looked around. Deciding to leave Scarface and let the authorities deal with him, she knew for sure he wasn't going anywhere because there was no way legs could be placed that way and not be broken, she turned around and trudged up the stairs, exhaustion starting to settle in._

___The walk seemed never ending, and with the fog not disappearing immediately it still left that abandoned feel as the deathly atmosphere still had rein. Zara's eyes scanned the houses and street, noting the sight of blood here or there, or a dropped weapon, but never a body. Another wince, and this time not related to pain. She was pretty sure they would never turn up again, that they had been disposed of at some point during her rampage. The thought was a sickening one, but a fact nevertheless. ____I'll deal with it later.__ She told herself firmly. ____First I just have to get out of here before I can think about doing anything else._

___When a sudden barking reached her ears she immediately felt excitement forming within her, because she knew that sound from anywhere. It was the one Skia used when she felt like she had accomplished something, and that was normally finding her target. "Hey Skia." She called, not loudly but not softly either._

___Suddenly the dog was there, tackling Zara's knees and barking furiously while her tail wagged back and forth, becoming a blur with the speed. Zara mentally thanked the canine for not jumping up, that would probably have been the end of her. She smiled as she patted the dog's head. "I know. Are the others here?" Another bark, one of approval as they continued their walk, the fog now intensely lighter than what it was before and almost completely gone. _

___She heard the voices before she saw them, but that was probably because she couldn't really focus on anything at the moment as she struggled to stay awake. The voices grew louder and she winced as she heard one cry out, before arms engulfed her and she let out a low hiss as her still bleeding shoulder had pressure applied. "I'm so glad you are OK." Kairi said, quickly releasing her when she felt the liquid on her arm. Suddenly Hasan was there to, making his sister look up at him in her now barely conscious state. _

_"__Are you OK?" He asked quietly, and she noticed the sudden silence among them, also taking note of Axel being beside Hasan. She knew what the question signified, was she alright with the fact that she just caused a massacre. But she already knew the answer._

_"__It was a stupid thing to do, but I'll deal with it." She replied, a weak smile on her features as she shrugged, wincing at the action. "Are you OK?"_

___Hasan smiled and nodded while Axel chuckled. "At least we know you can take care of yourself when given the chance. To bad you didn't have that last time."_

___Zara chuckled in agreement when a cloth was pressed against her shoulder, immediately cutting it off. "Ow." She said bluntly, and Kairi smiled apologetically while she held an apple up in front of her friend._

___Zara's mood immediately improved as she took it and bit down, the hunger and exhaustion __combating each other until the former won. "I love you." She said, grinning as she bit in again._

_"__Thank Riku, he was the one that set you up." Hasan replied._

___Zara sighed and shook her head. "Of course, only reason though is because of that one time I made him train with me, we both learned the hard way food is ____very__ important afterwords." She smiled at the memory, then smiled wider when she realized she could even recall that memory. _

___Yeah, the past few months weren't the best, loosing her memory, surviving vengeful gangs, and trying to work on a normal life that was far from normal weren't the easiest things to do. But in the end she once again came out on top, another personal challenge taken down, and the feeling of accomplishment she felt was just enough to lighten the mood, even if it did so by only a little bit._


	19. Epilogue

**_*Sigh* What is it with this thing and Italics? Anyways, thank you to everyone who read this, I hope you enjoyed it. Not as much fighting throughout the story, however if you like those types of scenes then I would suggest my other stories, preferrably 'The Persistent Past'. Later everyone, Happy New Year.  
-Shadoword_**

**_I've been brought down to my knees  
_****_And I've been pushed way past the point of breaking  
_****_But I can take it back  
_****_I'll be back  
_****_Back on my feet  
_****_This is Far from over  
_****_You haven't seen the last of me_**

___Her breathing was even as she stood in front of her opponents, eyes clear and studying how they held themselves. The crowd on the bleachers sat and watched on in silence as the two continued to look the other over, using their knowledge from watching their previous fights on how they would attack the challenge. Zara's long white hair was braided and fell down her back while her clothes were simple shorts and a t-shirt that didn't have any excess cloth that would possibly get in the way. All three of them were barefoot as they stood in the center of the gym and on the padded mats, though that didn't do to much compared to the long dagger in her hand while Cloud held his large bust sword, letting his rest on his shoulder. Riku himself had his personalized black and red sword that had the blade curved in the style of a faint red wing. _

_"__Alright, this is a two part battle." Zack said, standing off to the side of the three-way triangle they made so he could see them both. "The first part will be with your weapons of choice, then, when I give the signal you are going to drop your weapons and continue with hand to hand. We clear?"_

_"__Yes sir." They chorused, and Zara smiled faintly at the two. Cloud and Riku returned with their own smirks.. "Shall we get started?"_

___The guy across from her grinned. "Only if you want to." Cloud and her were the two that normally always came out to the top two in any of the championships that came through town, and this time was no exception as Riku joined them in the three-way competition that Zack had decided to host._

___It was three months after the things with her attackers was cleared up, thanks to some change of the actual facts so Zara was dragged into any legal matters. Xemnas had given her a lengthy lecture on control her power, which she obediently sat through since what she had done had been stupid. Her friends had been quick to forgive her, but it had taken her a while to get over it. Besides, there wasn't much she could do about it now. However she didn't feel any remorse when Scarface was executed a week after he was recaptured, all she felt was the reassurance that there was no way he could screw up anything now. _

___Zara had quickly gotten back into the routine of things, and she was still surprised at how many people congratulated her on getting her memory back, as well as the huge party that was thrown. Just goes to show, never let Sora have permission to organize any parties. It took her hours to get all the crazy string out of her hair and they had to tie Sora and Roxas down until the sugar high ran through their system. _

___And one of the things she was quick to pursue was the fighting competitions that she had really missed, one of the reasons being she could use her daggers and not have a death count going on in her head. And now, she was glad she did when she got the chance. "Ready." They dropped into their fighting stances. "Set." The weapons came up, and Zara grinned. "Fight."_

___Zara jumped back to avoid the buster sword that embedded itself in the mat where her feet had been while she used her arm came up to block a hit from Cloud's fist. As the blond ran up he ducked down to rip his weapon out of the ground, intending to come up at her again until he felt the air above him move. When he looked back up Zara was the first thing he noticed missing, and he dived forward to feel a dagger just barely skimming his back before coming back onto his feet, raising his weapon just in time to block the daggers that threatened to cut across his chest. _

___Then Riku had joined in the fight, bringing his own sword around to clash with one of Zara's daggers before he dropped down, Cloud swiping his large sword and forcing Zara to bring another dagger around to make sure it didn't hit either her or Riku. Even with much smaller weapons than the guys she knew them like any other body part, and with the strength in the weapons she could hold her own in defense when it came to their swords. "What's with the double teaming?" She asked with mock hurt, disengaging with the both of them and jumping back some._

_"__We're not." Riku replied, and to prove his point he swung his leg around to catch Cloud's own, sending him to the ground while the silver haired teen did a shoulder roll to the left, putting some space between the two of them. "See?"_

___Cloud smirked, rolling slightly on his back before he used his legs and got himself back on his __feet without using his hands, buster sword swinging around in front of him again as they all stood ready. "I call first shot." _

_"__Fine, I get second." Before Riku finished the sentence Cloud charged Zara, and the girl was forced to duck down as the large weapon crossed over her head, her arm swinging above her and catching Cloud's arm, but she made sure it was only high enough to leave a small cut. Riku followed behind her and she rolled to the side, throwing one of her daggers to catch him in the leg and cut lightly through the cloth. They both attacked at the same time, and she was forced to onto the defensive as she continued to side-step, duck, and deflect their attacks, still not having any scratches. "Formation." Zack ordered, and at once they were back in their triangular formation, their breathing starting to hitch some. _

_"__Alright, no weapons this round." Zara simply tossed her dagger off to the side, and it embedded itself into the mat a solid twenty feet away, Riku and Cloud discarded their own weapons, the next half of the battle coming in. "Ok, first one on their back for a solid five seconds must retreat from the battle, then the second to be on their back for seven seconds will leave the last one standing the winner. Are we clear?"_

_"__Yes sir." Riku and Cloud glanced at each other. Zara always had an advantage with her smaller frame, and was a pain to get a hold of when needed. So this wasn't going to be the easiest of things to do._

_"__Don't hold back guys." She said, noticing their looks._

_"__Fight." The abrupt command didn't catch them off guard before they were at it again._

_XXXXXX_

_"__Come on Zara!" Yuffie cheered, watching as she continued to fight with Riku and Cloud. The group of friends never worried about anyone getting seriously injured, the fighters made sure they knew their weapons well enough to administer the right move or power so that way only scratches were given. _

_"__Don't we ever feel bad for not cheering for the guys?" Kairi wondered aloud, watching the scene in front of her as well. _

___Yuffie giggled and shook her head. "No way."_

_"__Yuffie, that's not nice." Aries said softly._

_"__You know it's true! It's always fun watching the big tough guys get owned." This time the others joined in her laughter as Riku landed harshly on his back in front of them, dazed for a second before pushing himself back up after Cloud's kick landed squarely on his chest. "Heya Riku." He waved her off as he started back to the other two, who were now going at it with full force._

___Zara had to be careful with Cloud, the guy worked out and it showed not only in his form, but in the force of his hits. Once she had walked away with a nice sized bruise and a dislocated shoulder, not that she had been mad or anything, it was all fair game to them. So as soon as she dodged his roundhouse kick she launched herself at him, moving quickly and delivering swift punches at never left her arms in one place to long._

___She was able to catch him painfully on the shoulder, but unfortunately didn't withdraw in time before he grabbed her arm and turned around to flip her over his shoulder, her smaller body flying through the air. But instead of crashing into the ground, like he expected, her feet planted themselves on the ground, knees bent and leaving her body horizontal with the ground, now holding onto Clouds arm to keep her steady. She smirked. before her head slammed into Cloud's and she let go, rolling out of the way as he stumbled slightly, shock evident on his features._

___Before he could get up she brought her elbow slamming down onto his back and he crashed onto the floor and she was on top of him, arms pinned behind his back while Zack started a countdown. Surprisingly the smaller girl was able to hold him down and when Zack said "Five" She got off of him, just in time for him to roll over as Riku's leg slammed into the ground instead before retreating off the fighting mats. "Hey Riku, you alright?" As Zara asked this she blocked his fist, smacking it to the side so she could retaliate with her own hit._

_"__Chest is gonna be sore for a bit, but other than that I'm good." He winced as she swept her leg around, sending him landing harshly on his back. But before she had a chance to do anything else he slid one of his legs through hers and hooked it around her ankle before pulling it back, then she was on the ground to. _

___Zara grunted as she hit the ground, then Riku was over her with her arms pinned to the ground. Zack started the countdown. "Seven."_

_"__Not bad Riku." Zara commented, not moving._

_"__Thanks."_

_"__Five."_

_"__Small problem though." She tilted her head slightly._

_"__And what's that?" He could hear Cloud's chuckling off to the side. _

_"__Three."_

_"__I planned on winning this fight, and am pretty sure that's what I'm going to end up doing." Riku didn't know what happened next, but could only guess he didn't hold down her arm secure enough, before with his grip still on her, a fist suddenly slammed into his cheek, sending him leaning to the side just enough to where she could overpower him and flip him over. Her hand wrapped around his neck and she held one arm off to the side while the other gripped her hand, just enough so she didn't apply to much pressure to suffocate him, though he highly doubted she wouldn't. Zack restarted the countdown and she smirked from her vantage point._

_"__One." Immediately he was released and took a deep breath of air. "So close." He groaned._

_"__But not close enough." She laughed as she pushed herself off of him, grabbing his hand and helping him up. Cloud approached them and the three of them shook hands as Zack formally announced the winner, but none of them paid attention. "Drinks are on me then." Zara said, smiling greatly at Zack as he handed her back her daggers._

___Riku nodded in agreement. "You sure you want to extend the offer to the others? Sora is going to make you broke."_

_"__Yep, because you're the one that's going to make sure he doesn't go overboard." Riku made a face and Zara once again laughed, as everyone else surrounded them to give their congratulations. Her brother gave her a tight hug and she gratefully returned it._

___Life was crazy, her friends were insane, and her brother was the only family she had left. But now, more than anything, she was content with her life, and would dare anyone to try and take it and the memories it brought away from her. _


	20. Playlist

_'My Story' Playlist:_

_Chapter 1: Three Days Grace - Get Out Alive_

_Chapter 2: DJ Trinity - Sound Of My Dream_

_Chapter 3: Rob Thomas - Real World '09_

_Chapter 4: Avril Lavigne - Runaway_

_Chapter 5: Vitamin C - Smile_

_Chapter 6: Linkin Park - Somewhere I Belong_

_Chapter 7: Disturbed: Down With The Sickness_

_Chapter 8: Christina Aguilera: Fighter_

_Chapter 9: Vitamin C - Graduation_

_Chapter 10: Thousand Foot Krutch - Move_

_Chapter 11: Three Days Grace - World So Cold_

_Chapter 12: Breaking Benjamin - Sooner Or Later_

_Chapter 13: P!nk - Get The Party Started / P!nk - Raise Your Glass_

_Chapter 14: KJ 52 - The Hardway_

_Chapter 15: Linkin Park - Easier To Run_

_Chapter 16: P!nk - 18 Wheeler_

_Chapter 17: Black Veil Brides - Never Give In_

_Chapter 18: Disturbed: The Game_

_Chapter 19: Cher - You Haven't Seen The Last Of Me_


End file.
